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THE DISCLOSURES 

OF THE 

UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES, 

CONTAINING 

1. The Idea of God : Absolute Intellectuality. 

2. The Creation : Absolute Emanation. 

3. Matter and Force: The Universe in its Potentiality and 

Actuality. 

4. The Universal Mechanism : Motion and its Transformations 



BIT 

SOLOMON J, 'SILBERSTEIN, 



H^CY-^-^^" 



New York : 

Philip Cowen, Publisher, 213-215 East 44TH St. 

i8q6. 



s? 



o 



4 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1896, by 

Solomon J. Silberstein, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



ERRATA. 
Page 82, line 8, Thompson should be Thomson. 
Page 82, line 21, read luarmih for worms. 
Page 273, line 23, read formed for found. 



EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Ph.D. 

Profkssor of Political Science, Columbia College, N. Y., 

Hon. ISIDOR STRAUS, 

Former Member of Congress, U. S., 

AND 

WILLIAM JAMES, Ph.D. 

Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, 

Mass., 

to whom the author is indebted for many great favors, hk 

dedicates this work as a slight token of 

his esteem and appreciation. 



I take this occasion to express my warm gratitude to the 
following noble-hearted persons for many favors, without which, 
it would have been impossible for me to have pursued my 
researches and brought them to fruition : 

Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman. 

Mrs. Joseph Seligman. 

Mr. Jacob H. Schiff. 

Mr. James Loeb. 

Hon. IsiDOR Straus. 

Mr. David L. Einstein. 

Mr. Leonard Lewisohn. 

Dr. Isaac Adler. 

Mr. Abraham Wolff. 

Mr. Louis S. Wolff. 

Mr. Max Nathan. 

Hon. Seth Low. 

Professor William James. 

Bishop Henry C. Potter. 

Professor Felix Adler. 

Professor Morris Loeb. 

Dr. Henry M. Leipziger. 

Mr. George L. Beer. 



PREFACE. 



The title of this book, "The Disclosures of the Universal 
Mysteries," designates the matter set forth herein. Thousands 
upon thousands of years have elapsed, and of all the theologians, 
philosophers and men of science who have concerned themselves 
with the subject, not one has hitherto found the key of the 
universal mysteries. Whether or not I have found this key, I 
leave to the calm judgment of the reader, after a careful study 
of this book. 

It will encourage the reader to give thoughtful attention 
to my work, when he finds by the quotations which follow, from 
eminent men whose judgment may be relied upon, that other 
writings of mine have merited their serious consideration, if 
not approval. 

THE AUTHOR. 



The author will deem it a privilege if persons noticing this 
work, whether favorably or otherwise, will send him a copy 
of their criticism. He will be pleased to afford any further 
explanation of his position herein set forth. 



311 East 74/A street, New York, 
UTevtmber, 1696 



CONCERNING THE AUTHOR'S WRITINGS. 



Professor William James, of Harvard University, in a letter to 
Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman, of Columbia College, re- 
garding the author's MS. "Divinity and the Cosmos:" 
"There is a spiritedness about his whole attempt, a classic 
directness and simplicity in the style of most of it, and a bold 
grrandeur in his whole outlook, that give it a very high aesthetic 
quality, reminding me forcibly of Spinoza himself, opposed as are 
many of Silberstein's views to those of his great forerunner." 

In a second letter to Professor Seligman : 

"There is really a grand style about his writing — quite a 
native kinship to Spinoza." 

In a letter to the author Professor James states: 

"Your style is wonderfully spirited and direct; your 
attitude is noble and the simplicity of your outlook sublime. You 
are really a first cousin ot Spinoza, and if you had written your 
system then, it is very likely that I might now be studying it with 
students, just as Spinoza's now is studied." 

Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard University: 

"Your discussions, both of the history of philosophy and of 
the fundamental metaphysical problems, show, even in their frag- 
mentariness, in the present MS., an acuteness and skill that 
makes me wish that I could see in print your treatment of the 
fundamental question of philosophy. In this region your peculiar 
experience, your independence, your courage of conviction, pro- 
duce results which reveal you in a very interesting light." 

Professor George Trumbull Ladd, Yale University: 

"I have read a portion of the manuscript of Mr. Solomon J. 
Silberstein, setting forth his views in a new system of philosophy. 
These views are obviously the result of wide study and serious, 
prolonged and profound reflection. I should be very glad to have 
them published, so that they might be made accessible to all stu- 
dents of philosophy." 



Vm THE AUTHOR AND HIS WRITINGS 

Professor Sterrett, Columbian University, Washington, D. C. : 
''I have only been able to read enough of your MS. to be 
convinced of two things: First.— That you have the genuine philo- 
sophical spirit and insight. You know its central problem and its 
ancient and mediaeval solutions. You have done genuinely philo- 
sophical work. Second. — That your terminology and method 
place you without the sphere of much of the current thinking. 
This argues nothing against the intrinsic worth of your thought. 
I believe that the work is well worth publishing, and that it will 
command the interest and attention of students of philosophy. I 
trust that you will have it published. I shall be glad to purchase 
a copy and to read it. 

Professor Geo. M. Duncan, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. : 
"I have read the first chapter of Mr. Silberstein's work, 
' Divinity and the Cosmos,' and am impressed with its acuteness 
and originality of view. Much in it reminds me of Spinoza, and 
impresses one as being the production of a vigorous mind that has 
worked on the profound questions of philosophy in isolation from 
the general currents of modern speculation. It is all the more 
noteworthy from this fact. The writer is evidently a philosophical 
thinker of ability and originality, and I should be glad to see his 
work in print." 
Dr. K. KoHLER, New York, writes: (November 4th, 1889.) 

" Mr. S. J. Silberstein has written a Hebrew work on ' Reli- 
gion and Law.' I gladly testify that the book in question shows 
profoun<i and original research and vast erudition ; and no matter 
whether the author may or may not expect to create a new cosmo- 
theological system surpassing that of Leibnitz and Spinoza, he 
certainly has the philosophical equipment, the love of truth and 
the self-denial of a real scholar, which entitle him to the respect 
and to the support of all those who, in our age of materialistic 
pursuits, still worship at the shrine of the ideal and honor the 
idealist, in whatever garb, as its priest and prophet." 



CHAPTER 1. 

THE IDEA OF GOD: 
ABSOLUTE INTELLECTUALITY. 



n^HE mechanic lias a mental image in his brain of 
the machine which he intends to build. He 
builds his machine after the models or images which 
his brain creates. Thus, the knowledge of a machine 
creates a mental image in his brain in exactly the 
same form as the machine will be which he will after- 
wards construct in actuality. The intellect constructs 
that mental image before the physical machine is 
formed ; in other words, the physical machine is only 
a copy of the image which was previously formed by 
the intellect. The universe, containing all the physi- 
cal objects, all the machines that ever can be in an 
actual existence by one general relation, as an infi- 
nitely great machine — must be the intellectual result 
of an intellectual image which was previously formed 
by an intellect. Thus, the intellect of the universe 
constructed that mental image of the entire universe 
before the physical universe was formed. The physi- 
cal universe is only a copy of the intellectual image — 



b THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

of the mtellectual universe which was and ever is 
previously formed by an intellect. 

It is true, the mechanic has the uiental image in 
his brain of the machine which he intends to build 
before it is formed in actuality, because that mechanic 
has the knowledge of some preliminary propositions 
and axioms, as that of the logical and mathematical 
calculations, and has already experienced and experi- 
mented with many single phenomena by his senses ; 
so that the mental image of that machine does not 
.seem to be absolutely previous to the machine, but it 
is found and contained in other existing objects and 
is collated in the human brain of the mechanic from 
the ideas of many physical things that are previous in 
existence. But the truth itself, by teaching us that 
the mechanic forms his mental image of that machine 
only because he has the knowledge of some prelimi- 
nary propositions and axioms, and only because he 
has experienced and experimented with many single 
objects that are previous in existence, teaches us plainly 
that the newly constructed machine is a mathematical 
inference from many physical objects that are previous 
in existence. Calculating the force in one compound 
object, regarding the amount of matter, or "mass " of 
the object, the magnitude and direction of the force, 
which impulse compels the object to be in a certain 
state and form, in its peculiarity, in comparison with 



THE IDEA OF GOD 



many other forces in many other objects and systems 
of bodies (machines), which impulses compel the 
objects to be in their different states and forms, in their 
different pecnliarities — the mechanic has obtained 
by such a calculation his project to build a new 
machine, a new system of forces, which should possess 
a certain amount of matter, a certain magnitude and 
direction of forces, which impulse should compel the 
machine to be in a new state and form, to possess a 
nev/ peculiarity, by the mathematical inferences. 

Thus, the science of mechanics, by teaching us 
that given the mass of a body, the force acting on it, 
and the time during which it acts, we can calculate 
the change of motion, teaches us that the change of 
motion is a mathematical inference from the mass of 
the body, from the force acting on it, and from the time 
during which it acts. Teaching us again that given 
the mass and the change of velocity, we can calculate 
the magnitude and direction of the force acting, 
teaches us that the magnitude and direction of the 
force are mathematical inferences from the mass of 
the body and from the change of velocity. And 
teaching us that we can find the one force which is 
equivalent, in its action, to any given set of forces ; 
for, however many changes of motion may be pro- 
duced by the separate forces, they must obviously be 
capable of being compounded into a single change, 



6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

and we can calculate what force would produce that, 
teaches us plainly that just as a certain magnitude 
and direction of any given force is said to compel, as 
a mathematical inference, a certain change of state in 
a certain body, bodies are so also said to mutually act 
on one another, by mathematical inferences, through 
certain impulses. A certain impulse compels a certain 
change in a body ; a certain change is a certain pro- 
duct of a certain impulse of a body. A certain impulse 
again, being itself a certain change in a body, must 
be, inevitably, the certain product of a previous 
impulse of that body, or of another body acting on it. 
Thus, every physical phenomenon, every change, 
effect and impulse of any physical object, is a certain 
product, as a mathematical inference, from previous 
physical phenomena, from previous changes, effects 
and impulses of physical objects that are previous in 
existence, and those previous objects must be certain 
products, by mathematical inferences, from more pre- 
vious objects, and so forth without end. So also the 
last physical phenomenon, the last change, effect and 
impulse of the last physical object is forced to generate 
another product, by the mathematical inference, which 
shall bring another physical object into actuality to 
follow it, and so on without end. So that all physical 
objects that exist in actuality in the whole endless 
universe are thus joined together one with the other 



THE IDEA OF GOD 9 

and coming one from the other, by mathematical 
inferences, which spring one from the other and one 
after the other in one mathematical bond without 
beginning and without end. 

The science of mechanics again, teaching us that 
when one kind of energy disappears or is expended, 
energy of some other kind is produced, and that, under 
proper conditions, the disappearance of any one of the 
known kinds of energy can be made to give rise to a 
greater or less amount of any other kind ; and teach- 
ing us that the total amount of energy possessed by 
any system of bodies (the parts of a machine) is unal- 
tered by any transformation arising from the action 
of any part of the system upon another, and can only 
be increased or diminished by effects produced on the 
system by external agents ; and the observation of 
Renkine teaching us the remarkable consequence of 
the mutual convertibility which has been shown to 
exist between heat and other forms of energy ; that 
the quantity of heat and that of any kind of work, or 
of any other form of energy balance each other and 
change one into the other, — teaches us plainly that 
none of the physical forces, none of any kind of energy, 
no impulse, no effect and no change has any real 
existence in itself, as it is always changing ; and that 
the non-real existence of those forces is contained in 
a real existence of a poteittial force^ or a potential 



lO THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

energy^ in which all forces, impulses, effects and 
changes are absolutely one, and which reveals and 
modifies itself in physical waves, to appear in all kinds 
of energy, impulses, effects and changes, by mathe- 
matical inferences, in order to be individualized in 
all kinds of the different and varying objects and 
forces, and to balance each other and to change one 
into the other, in the one mathematical bond. And 
again, the science of mechanics, teaching us that a 
certain state and form of a physical object, of any 
material thing, is a product of a certain kind of energy, 
either through chemical combinations or through' 
physical compositions, teaches us also plainly that 
matter, in its objective existence, has not any real 
existence in any state and form, which are always 
changing, and that the non-real existence of the objec- 
tive matter is contained in a real existence of a poten- 
tial matter^ or a potential essence^ in which all states 
and forms are absolutely one, and which reveals and 
modifies itself in physical waves, to appear in all 
kinds of states and forms, by mathematical inferences, 
in order to be individualized in all kinds of the differ- 
ent and varying objects and forces, and to be conserved 
in an objective existence, in actuality, in all balancing 
of each other and in all changing one into the other 
in the one mathematical bond, without beginning and 
without end. 



THE IDEA OF GOD 



The science of mechanics, therefore, while its 
business is to find what objective fact corresponds to 
the subjective data of sensation, in order to realize the 
objective appearances of the objective world as a con- 
servative reality, compels us at the same time to 
pass over its limits, and to come to the inevitable con- 
clusion that the objective realities in the physical 
world, which are realities to the sensual perception of 
man, are realities only to the subjective data of sensa- 
tion, not to the subjective data of pure conception. 
All objective realities, the conservation of matter, and 
the conservation of momentum (force and energy) and 
of moment of momentum, in their times and places, 
which are perceived as realities by the muscular senses, 
correspondented to the subjective data of sensation, are 
not contained in the objective physical phenomena 
themselves. Objective matter, to our perceptions, is 
the infinite number of those physical waves, in the 
infinite space ^ in the form of physical objects in their 
different states and forms, in a non-absolute existence, 
coming one from the other and changing one into the 
other, from a deeper unity of absolute existence, from 
a subjective world beyond our sensual perceptions. 
The objective momentum and the moment of momen- 
tum, to our perceptions, is the infinite number of those 
physical waves, in the infinite time in the form of 
physical forces, in their different magnitudes and 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



directions, in a non-absolnte existence, coming one 
from the other, balancing each other and changing 
one into the other, without beginning and without 
end, from a deeper unity of absolute existence, from 
a subjective world beyond oiir sensual perception. So 
that the physical universe, matter and force in actu- 
ality, does not contain its existence in itself. But 
universal existence as a whole, its potential beings 
gives existence to the particularized objects which 
are contained in it ; and its quiddity, in its deeper 
unity, stands altogether by itself. All the compound 
objects in the physical universe which were, which 
are and which ever shall be, reveal but one manifesta- 
tion of potential matter or potential essence. For, 
every manifestation we perceive is the effect, by a 
mathematical inference, of a manifestation which 
preceded it, and in its turn the cause of a manifesta- 
tion that will follow it in the universal existence, in 
the one mathematical bond. That the existence of 
every compound object in manifestation does not lie 
in the object itself, but lies in the universal exist- 
ence which is an absolute unit, containing in itself 
all that is manifested. All the particularized beings, 
therefore, the temporal causes in manifestation in the 
endless and multifarious, various and varying aspects 
as they appear in the universe are incessantly chang- 
ing one into the other, coming and going, forming 



THE IDEA OF GOD 13 

and dissolving through the one universal cause of the 
potential universe^ which is the absolute unity of 
universal existence, depending on the one general 
law, the one mathematical bond, which is the absolute 
being, and it changes not in all eternity. Thus, the 
potential force and the potential matter are absolutely 
one in their generality, it is the universe as a whole, 
171 its potential being, from which the physical 
. universe is individualized ; and its being is a 
mathematical inference from a mathematical or an 
intellectual universe which was and ever is previ- 
ously formed by an intellect standing and existing 
by itself. This mathematical or intellectual universe 
I call Absolute Intellectuality, the God of the 
Universe. 

The students of the positive school, being depend- 
ent upon inductive method alone, have made up their 
conclusion that we have a relative knowledge only of 
the single things which we can analyze and experi- 
ment with, whose qualities and quantities enter within 
the range of our perceptions. But we can have no 
knowledge of things that we do not perceive They 
will not busy themselves about things not manifested 
to the perception, nor search for the origin of temporal 
causes which flow from and merge into the one uni- 
versal cause. Philosophers and scientists of this 
description have made the argument that natural 



14 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

science consists of the knowledge of things as they 
are and is the only knowledge attainable by man. 
But, they opine, transcendental philosophy, which 
searches for the causes of single phenomena in their 
relation to the general universal existence, can never 
be attained by man. The truth, however, teaches us 
plainly that the cognition of man is not the wisdom 
of the mind, and therefore, the cognition is no knowl- 
edge at all. Human cognition is limited by the 
perceptions of the senses — the perception of the par- 
ticularized compound objects, each in its particular- 
ized state and limited capacity. The same is the 
cognition of the animal, the bird, the reptile — each, 
according to the senses he possesses and their develop- 
ment. The life of the animal as well as that of man 
consists of the possession of senses and brain. The 
senses convey their perceptions to the brain, and in 
the latter images are formed of the objects perceived. 
The formation of such images is cognition. Thus 
" the ox knoweth his owner and the ass the manger 
of his master." Each one according to the manner 
in which his senses come in touch with the outward 
appearance of particularized objects and according to 
the reflection which his perception casts on the brain. 
In this wise the cognition of man is constituted of 
the knowledge of individual objects in their particu- 
larized states as we perceive of tlieir outward being 



THE IDEA OF GOD 15 

by our individual experiments and perception. But 
wisdom, the true wisdom of the mind, teaches us that 
the being we perceive is not absolute, that the out- 
ward form of a compound object is not the object 
itself, that the real being of every compound object is 
part of universal existence. The outward being of 
every individual compound object lies in the inward 
existence of the universe itself; for the existence of 
every particular object comes from the existence of a 
particularized object which preceded it in time, and 
the cause of the previous object was in an object still 
more previous, and so forth in an unlimited range of 
changes. Thus, if we want to know by pure wisdom 
the real being of any particular object, its real quan- 
tity, quality and intensive properties, we must search 
it by the a priori method of pure reason, by deduction 
from the universal to the particular ; we must begin 
with forming an idea of existence in general. The 
being of the bread and the being of the man are two 
distinct beings outwardly at one certain time. But 
the being of the bread at that time is not its true 
being, nor is the being of the man in its time his real 
being ; for in the course of time the bread becomes 
man and the man is converted into bread. The bread 
eaten by man is de facto man, and the man dissolved 
into his component elements turns into bread in the 
process of time. The bread which man eats becomes 



I 6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

by the process of digestion blood, muscle, bone and 
all the other substances of which the human frame is 
formed ; and when the man dies, his body is dissolved 
in the elements of which vegetables are composed 
and bread is made. Now, if the temporal being of 
any individual object were its real existence, its entity, 
entirely dependent on itself — it could never be trans- 
formed into any other compound object. If the 
identity of bread, while it is bread, were in itself as 
regards its quality, quantity and intensive properties 
as we perceive them with our senses, how could it 
ever become man ? The entity of the bread in its time 
and the entity of man in his time are quite different 
from each other. If they were real entities how could 
they merge one into the other ? We are consequently 
forced to assume as a positive fact that the entity of 
any compound object as it appears within the limits 
of time is not real. Thus the entity of every indi- 
vidual compound object within the limits of time lies 
in and consists of the entity of all individual compound 
objects in their universal generality, in the intensive 
universal existence which the senses cannot perceive 
but which the mind can conceive of. Thus, the 
science of experience and experiments alone, of which 
our naturalists are so proud and which they call 
" exact knowledge," is only a delusion, and all prin- 
ciples built upon it and all inductions drawn from it 



THE IDEA OF GOD 1 7 

are not true. The laws which our scientists have 
discovered may hold good only in as far as practical 
machinism is concerned as a separate and distinct 
means by which man can make use of the particular- 
ized objects and already developed forces he knows 
by his experience. But they are not laws whose 
activity controls nature in general, or even the uni- 
versal mechanism as an integral part of the wisdom 
of universal existence. We can have no knowledge 
of the real nature of any compound object, even in its 
singularity, as it appears before us, before we have a 
pure intellectual conception of universal existence in 
general. 

The question whether a man is able to possess a 
pure intellectual conception or not, will be proven in 
the following pages. The reader will please follow 
me step by step until we arrive together at the highest 
wisdom and the pure knowledge of the universe in 
general and in its particularizations. 

We know clearly that everything that exists in 
actuality was brought into existence by a cause which 
preceded it, and that cause was forced to become a 
cause by still earlier causes, and so forth without end. 
So also the last cause, which has brought the thing 
into actuality,is forced to generate another cause which 
shall bring another thing into actuality to follow it, 
and so on without end. All the thingrs that exist in 



l8 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

actuality in the whole endless universe are thus joined 
together one with the other, and come one from the 
other by temporal causes which spring one from the 
other and one after the other in one bond without 
beginning and without end. Now, if we wish to 
know a thing that exists in actuality, we must know 
the cause which has brought it into existence ; for 
every cause contains in potency the thing which is to 
exist in actuality, as it should exist in actuality. But 
from the thing itself which exists in actuality we 
cannot know the cause which has brought it into 
existence. The image of every thing existing in 
actuality as recognized by the senses, which is but the 
outward appearance of every compound object -as it 
cannot convey to us the knowledge of the quiddity of 
that object, of its real quality, intensive properties 
and the order of its constitution, so can it not give us 
the knowledge of the cause which preceded it. For 
the image of every thing existing in actuality is noth- 
ing but its outward form, while the cause which 
preceded it contains in itself and produces in the 
object its quality, quantity, quiddity and all its inten- 
sive properties, its constitutional formation together 
with its outward form or image. Thus, if we wish to 
know a cause which has brought a certain thing into 
existence, we must know the cause which preceded 
that cause and then the precedent cause of that earlier 



THE IDEA OF GOD I9 

cause, and so forth without end. If we wish to know 
one cause we must know all the causes of the endless 
universe which were and are in existence. But man 
— who in his body is limited in time and by the per- 
ception of his senses — as he is not able to know all 
the causes, he is unable to know any single cause. 
On about the same principles is based the " relative 
knowledge " of our scientists and the whole system 
of Scepticism, from the ancient philosopher Pyrrho 
of Elis till Emmanuel Kant. But the truth itself 
teaches us quite differently. 

This, however, we do know clearly : that every 
effect, every existing thing, is a product, by a mathe- 
matical inference, from a previous cause, as it is the 
case in the whole science of mechanics ; and, there- 
fore, we do know clearly that if man were able to 
know clearly one cause in the universe, he would 
through that knowledge know also the cause which 
is to follow it even before the latter will become a 
cause. That the knowledge of the cause is previous 
to the cause. Thus, as every cause by which a thing 
is wrought in actuality is previous to the thing itself, 
so also is the knowledge of the cause previous to the 
cause itself And since we clearly know that all the 
things of actual existence, the various and differing 
compound objects of the universe, are intertwined one 
with the other and come one from the other in the 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



succession of causes which preceded them in universal 
existence in general, we know clearly that all the 
causes existing in particularization in actuality — as 
well as those which exist in potency in the universe 
in general — are bound up one with the other in the 
knowledge of the causes, in the mathematical bond, 
which preceded them ; and we know also that in the 
mathematical knowledge of every cause is contained 
the knowledge of all the causes which preceded it 
without beginning and which are to follow it without 
end ; that the knowledge of one cause contains in 
itself the knowledge of all the causes of eternal exist- 
ence, as one mathematical inference is inferred from 
and contained in every one of the whole mathematical 
bond. And since we know already clearly that the 
knowledge of every compound object is not contained 
in the object itself, but the object is contained in the 
knowledge of the cause that preceded it and brought 
it into actual existence by precedent knowledge, and 
that precedent knowledge, again, is contained in the 
knowledge of a cause still more precedent which con- 
tained it in potency and wrought it in actuality, and 
so forth without end, we thus come to the above con- 
clusion clearly, that the knowledge of the universe as 
a whole and in its particularization is contained not 
in the physical universe itself, but is one Absolute 
Knowledge standing by itself beyond the physical 



THE IDEA OF GOD . 21 

universe and preceded it. We also came to know- 
clearly that all the particularized things that exist in 
the physical universe exist only according to the 
mathematical inferences, to the previous general 
knowledge that preceded them. There is not a thing 
known in the general knowledge which is not found 
in the universe in particularized actuality, as a math- 
ematical inference, just as there is not a thing in 
particularized actuality which is not contained in the 
general knowledge in the mathematical bond. 

We thus arrive at a new conclusion — that the 
human intelligence is identically the same with the 
one Absolute Knowledge. We know clearly that the 
knowledge of one cause contains in itself the knowl- 
edge of all the infinite causes of the universe ; that 
the knowledge of the universe in general and in its 
particularization is contained in each instance of 
knowledge of each of the causes of the universe. The 
very being of the absolute general existence of the 
universe is the very absolute being of every one of its 
particularizations. The intelligence of man, there- 
fore, is the knowledge of that knowledge. It tells 
man what is the knowledge which causes the under- 
standing of the human mind. By that intelligence 
itself which man possesses, he knows that, as man, he 
is unable to know. His intelligence tells him that 
he is an individual compound object, formed by a 



22 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

previous cause according to his time and according 
to his place, and by that he knows that he cannot 
know himself with all his intensive qualities, because 
he knows not the previous cause of his existence, and 
this, again, because that previous cause has become a 
cause only through another cause which was still 
more previous, and so forth without end. Thus, man, 
in that he knows that he cannot know, knows also 
that all the causes which are active in the universe 
are joined together in a chain of eternal succession in 
the one absolute general cause. And in that man 
knows that he cannot know one single cause because 
every cause is but the mathematical result of a pre- 
vious cause, he knows that, if Jie know one cause in 
the universe, he could know the cause from which it 
developed before it has become a cause, Man, there- 
fore, knows that the mathematical knowledge of a 
cause is previous to the cause itself. Accordingly, 
man knows, by that he knows that he does not know, 
that all the active causes of the universe are coming 
one from the other and intertwined one with the other 
in one general bond in the general cause which pre- 
ceded them, and that the one general cause was made 
according to the mathematical knowledge which was 
previous to it. He knows, therefore, that the universe 
entire in its being in actuality, consists in its potential 
existence^ which is the one primitive cause to the 



THE IDEA OF GOD 23 

whole actuality, and that the potential existence of 
the universe is its existence in the mathematical bond 
in the Intellectuality, which is the Knowledge of all 
causes — the cause of all causes. That the universe 
entire, in its generality, which is the general cause, 
and in its particularizations, which are the temporar}^ 
causes, exists according to the knowledge which pre- 
ceded it, as mathematical inferences from the One 
Mathematical Bond, and that in that universal knowl- 
edge there is nothing which the potential or the 
actual universe does not contain in actual particulari- 
zation, for everything in the universal knowledge is 
a mathematical inference to be produced in actuality, 
and that there is nothing in actual particularization 
which is not contained in the universal knowledge. 
Thus man knows that the eternal truth, or the general 
and safe criterion of the truth of every conception, is 
that : A thing meditated and formed in the mind, to 
be found in existence, as it can be in actuality, hold- 
ing true by mathematical inferences, according to the 
laws of Intellectuality — /. ^., after having a pure, 
general conception of the Absolute Generality. By 
all this, man knows that the general being of the 
universe entire is the general being of every individ- 
ual compound object in its particularization, and in 
the knowledge of every individual cause that is active 
in the universe is contained the general knowledge 



24 1'HE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

of all the endless causes of the universe in general. 
According to this, man knows that the intelligence of 
man, which is the knowledge of one cause, through 
which man knows that he, as man by its animality, 
does not know, contains the general knowledge of the 
universe entire. Knowing one cause of his own 
limited knowledge, he knows all causes of eternal 
existence. By that, man knows that he does not 
know, he comprehends the whole knowledge of the 
entire universe:— Through the knowledge of the one 
cause of his limitation, he may arise to the highest 
knowledge, to Divinity itself, to the Knowledge of 
all knowledge. 

But the intelligence of man, coming to the human 
mind by previous causes, after having experience and 
experiments with many single phenomena by the 
senses, from the objectivity of the universe, is con- 
tained in the human-instrument — in the brain — in 
order that the objectivity should be converted into 
subjectivity in the brain, as will be clearly explained 
in the next chapter. The Absolute Intellectuality, 
however, is previous to all causes, is the Subjectivity 
itself, from which the objectivity is produced ; and as 
the objectivity — the universe in actuality — is endless 
and boundless, nothing is behind it, that there is no 
time and no place where and when the universe does 
not exist, the Intellectuality, therefore, must be con- 



THE IDEA OF GOD 25 

ceived of a manner properly qualified to the universe. 
He has no brain, and He cannot be placed in anythirg, 
nor anything can have any place in Him, besides His 
Intellectuality. 

Again, forming in our mind a general image of 
the entire universe, we have the abstract image of the 
entire universe in our brain after the universe is already 
made and our body and brain are already in actual 
existence. The universe in actuality exists previously 
to the general image of the entire universe in our 
human-intelligence, and in the physical universe as 
well as in the general image of it in our brain are 
enclosed our body and brain. The general image of 
the entire universe in the human-intelligence, there- 
fore, must be conceived only through the human 
instrument and must be enclosed in that instrument, 
called the brain. The intellectual image of the entire 
universe in the great Mechanic of the universe, how- 
ever, is thinkable previously to the universe, that the 
Intellectual Universe must be entirely previous to the 
physical universe, and that there is not any other 
physical thing in any existence besides or behind the 
physical universe. The Intellectual Universe, as a 
consequence, cannot be thinkable to exist or to be 
enclosed in any physical thing behind Intellectuality. 
Intellectuality, therefore, has not any other attribute, 
nor any mode of matter and force, but pure Absolute 



26 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Intellectuality, the pure Mathematical Bond of the 
universe as an Intellectual Substance in an eternal 
Being, standing by itself, v/ithout any change in all 
eternity. The extension, or matter and force cannot 
be an attribute of God as a unit in Him just as Intel- 
lect, as Spinoza opines, but a separate creation made 
of Him. 

And again, when man thinks with his material 
brain of one machine, he cannot with the same thought 
dwell upon another machine, even when he thinks of 
a triangle, he cannot with the same thought dwell 
upon a square ; the intellectual image of a physical 
machine, in the brain of the mechanic, therefore, 
cannot be so perfectly generalized, and all the dijQTer- 
ent and separated particles and instruments of that 
machine, cannot be perfectly known and cognizable 
one in the other in their mutual intertwined relations. 
But Absolute Intellectuality, which is not material, 
embraces all abstract images without end in one per- 
fectly Absolute Generality, in the one Intellectual 
Being ; — so that in the knowledge of every one of the 
mental images in the Absolute Intellectuality is con. 
tained the knowledge of all mental images of eternal 
existence, and that every one of the mentally separated 
images are perfectly known and conceived one in the 
other in their mutual intertwined relation in the one 
pure Absolute Generality. 



THE IDEA OF GOD 



Thus, Absolute Intellectuality is the Intellectual 
Being of the universe : — the ideal concept of the uni- 
verse as a whole in one abstract image : — i. e.^ the 
images of all particularized objects that ever can be 
in universal existence, their volumes and masses, 
states and forms, modes, entities and quiddities, as 
they are conceived in an abstract image as an abso- 
lute generality, is the Absolute Intellectuality, the 
Almighty God, the pure Intellectual Substance, the 
Absolute Being, Jehovah the lyord of the universe, 
standing by itself in all eternity. 



CHAPTER n. 

THE CREATION: 
ABSOLUTE EMANATION. 



"^HE general image of a physical machine in the 
brain of the mechanic cannot be converted from 
its idealistic state into a machine of actual existence ; 
the architect must use many physical instruments 
and materials to build that machine in actuality, and 
the - existence of that machine, when it is already 
made, is no more dependent upon the architect but 
upon itself. For, the abstract image (the idea of any 
existing thing) which we form in our mind is eternal 
of absolute existence, unlimited in time and in place. 
Forming in our mind the image of a triangle, that 
image can never be destroyed, even if all the triangles 
in manifestation be put out of existence altogether. 
Any pure human intelligence, as it is true, as it con- 
tains not any contradiction in it, is an eternal truth 
in all times, places and with all men. It is never 
changing and is never particularizing itself in different 
forms or shapes. They do not spring one from the 
other, one is not the cause of the other ; one form of 
truth cannot be converted into another form of truth. 



THE CREATION 29 

If we draw our conclusions or inferences from previous 
truths and base our conclusions thereon, as we gener- 
ally do in Logic and Mathematics, the previous truths 
remain as such unchanged, they were not converted 
into new truths. The human intelligence, therefore, 
any general image, or any mental concept in the 
human brains of existing things, as it is absolute, as 
it is a real being, cannot be converted or transformed 
into a single concrete manifestation — into a physical 
or material thing, changeable and consequently non- 
absolute, nor have any relation with it in actuality. 
The universe, however, consists of two kinds 
of existence : A sensual or non-absolute, and an 
intellectual or absolute existence. To the sensual 
perception of man, the universe is nothing else but 
an aggregate of various and varying compound objects 
— an aggregate of single parts, changing one into the 
other, coming and going one from the other and one 
after the other. by a non-absolute existence. But to 
the intellectual conception in our mind all particular- 
ized compound objects have but one existence ; that 
their quantities and qualities, forces, causes and effects 
constitute one thing in the universe ; that their begin- 
ning is their end and their end is their beginning ; 
that the causes and effects by which they came into 
existence are the same by which they coime to their 
end ; that each particularized compound object of the 



30 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

present is the same as the one which was before, and 
contains within itself the object of the future. Thus 
to the general conception of existence the universe is 
one pure absolute being which has no beginning and 
no end. The universe, therefore, can neither be a 
non-absolute nor a self-existing being. For if the 
universe were a non-absolute being, limited in time 
and space, if we could imagine that there was once a 
time and a place when and where the universe did 
not exist, the universe, then, could never be created, 
as there were never to be found a creator to create it. 
The existence of any creator before the universal 
creation in time, or behind it in space, is a natural 
impossibility. Because a creator of the universe must 
have the cause of creation in himself as a perfect 
absoluteness in him ; it must be absolutely one and 
the same in the very cause of his own absolute being, 
not to be caused by any creation or creator. The 
cause of all causes cannot be caused by any outside 
cause. If we are able to conceive the existence of a 
Supreme Being, that the Being of all being exists 
beyond and previous to all that exist, who bestows 
existence to all by His own Existence, we have to 
conceive at the same time, with the same conception, 
that all which may be comprehended in the existence 
of that Supreme Being must be conceived as the very 
essential thing of His very Existence. That the 



THE CREATION 3 I 

intellect, the will and the production of creation are 
one and the same of His essential Being. Since His 
Existence is conceived to be the Supreme Existence, 
not caused by any other cause, His Intellect as well 
as His will and His activity of universal creation must 
be absolutely enclosed in His Supreme Existence, not 
as an accident in time or in space. If the activity of 
the universal creation is conceived to be the produc- 
tion of the Supreme Being in one moment of the 
infinite time and in one point of the infinite space, 
this activity must be the essential being in his abso- 
lute existence for the whole infinite time and for the 
whole infinite space ; for there can never be a cause 
in Him to the activity or to His will in one moment 
and in one point of space and not to be the same cause 
in Him in another moment and in another point of 
space. Now, if there were one moment or one point 
of space in which the universe did not exist, the uni- 
versal creation in that moment or in that space were 
not an absoluteness in the Supreme Being, that the 
creator were not a creator in that moment or in that 
space, and since there is no cause previous or beyond 
the Supreme Being to produce his existence, we 
would, consequently, never have had a creator to 
create the universe. Thus, the universe, as it is before 
us in existence it must be positively an absolute 
being, which has no beginning and no end, whether 



32 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

it is a created thing or not, it must be endless and 
boundless. 

And if the universe were a self-existing being, that 
the cause of its existence were inherent in it, then no 
change and no modification could ever be generated 
in it. Because the very cause of its being, which \^ere 
inherent in it, implying it to be modified one moment 
in an infinite number of single things, each of them 
in a certain state and form, would compel it to remain 
in such a number of things, each of them possessing 
such a state and form in all eternity. The cause of 
its existence itself, which is the cause of conservation 
in it in one moment, cannot be changed by its own 
impulse into a cause of change in another moment, 
that the single parts of the universe should be changed, 
every moment from one state and form into the other. 

The modern science of mechanics is based upon the 
laws of motion established b}^ Sir Isaac Newton, the 
first law of which is that : " Every body continues in 
its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight 
line, except in so far as it is compelled by force to 
change that state." The first part of this law 
is positively not correct, because a body in a state 
of rest simply meant a relative rest — for there is no 
absolute rest in the universe — since everything exist- 
ing in the universe, in whatever state and form it 
may be, must have some power or life to exist ; and 



THE CREATION 33 

as there is no power and life in any thing without the 
motion in it, the body, therefore, which is found in a 
state of rest can only be found in that state through 
the compulsion or influence of a greater velocity of a 
larger body, and continues in that state only as long 
as the influence of that body compels it to be in that 
state; but as soon as that influence ceases, the body 
becomes its own peculiar motion, and has no need to 
be compelled by force to change that state, as will be 
fully explained in the fourth chapter of this volume. 
The second part of the first law of Newton, however, 
is positively true, in so far that every body continues 
in its state of uniform motion in a straight line, except 
as it is compelled by force to change that state, be- 
cause the motio n of the body is the result of the power 
of conservation in the body, and it cannot be converted 
by its own impulse into another cause of change. 

This law tells us that whenever we find the state 
of motion of a piece of matter changing, we conclude 
that it is under the action of an outside cause or 
causes. But the piece of matter, when it is left to 
itself — i. e , not acted by outside causes - it preserves 
its state, whether of rest, according to Newton, or of 
uniform motion in a straight line. This property is 
commonly called the " inertia " of matter, in virtue 
of which it is incapable of varying in any way its 
state of " rest " or motion. So that the science of 



34 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

mechanics itself, teaching us, as a general law of 
nature, that no piece of matter can be changed by 
itself, compels us again to pass over its limits, not to 
be dependent upon the experimental knowledge alone, 
but to come to the following transcendental conclu- 
sion : 

Since no piece of matter can be changed by itself, 
and every body continues in its state of uniform 
motion in a straight line, except in so far as it is com- 
pelled by force to change that state, we must assume 
as a positive fact, first of all, that every magnitude 
and direction of motion of every body does not con- 
tain the cause of its own change within itself And 
since the motion of every body does not contain the 
cause of change in itself, and the piece of matter 
when it is left to itself preserves its state of uniform 
motion in a straight line, the motion of every body 
must consequently be within itself the result of the 
power of conservation in every body. Since the piece 
of matter preserves its state of uniform motion only 
as long as it is left to itself, but as soon as it is acted 
upon by outside causes, we find the state of motion 
of that piece of matter changing ; it is, therefore, evi- 
dently shown that there is no other power of conser- 
vation in the piece of matter than this of the motion 
in it, and consequently the peculiar motion of every 
body must be contained in the body, proportional to 



THE CREATION 35 

the mass of the body, in order to be conserved in its 
peculiar state, in its magnitude and direction. A 
large body must possess a greater magnitude and 
direction of motion, and a smaller body a smaller 
magnitude and direction, each of them according to 
its peculiar power of conservation, proportional to the 
mass of the body. And, again, since the motion of 
every body is the result of the power of conservation 
proportional to the mass of the body, and, therefore, 
does not contain in itself the cause of its own change, 
it cannot contain, also consequently, the cause of 
change to the motion of another body ; since the 
peculiar motion of every body, being the result of the 
power of conservation in the body, proportional to its 
mass, is inclosed and bounded within the limits of its 
mass ; it can never have, therefore, anything to do 
with the conservations of other bodies, which are also 
inclosed and bounded within the limits of their 
masses, and they have never the force in themselves 
to counteract upon each other. According to this 
positive conclusion, there is no active force of change 
in the objective world, neither in the matter of the 
bodies nor in their motion, which is the force acting 
on it being conserved ; and, accordingly, the meaning 
of the term " force," which means, according to New- 
ton's view, that " force is whatever changes a body's 
state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line " 



36 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

is wasted on such a "force" which has no existeace 
in the objective world at all. In reality, however, 
the science of mechanics, as well as the whole sciences 
of our time, deal not with the origin of matter and 
force and their causes, but with the effects produced 
before the scientists in their objective appearances. 
Yet, the law of " inertia," even if it is not true in the 
whole, it is positively true in the part of it, that no 
piece of matter and no force acting iu matter caa be 
changed by itself. 

Now, if the universe were a self-existing being, 
if the cause of its existence were inherent in it, no 
change and no modification could ever be generated 
in it. The objective world would ever firmly stand 
by its property of "inertia," containing the one a. A 
the same infinite number of bodies, each of them 
possessing the same state and form, without any 
change, in all eternity. 

The universe, therefore, must be an absolute being 
only in so far that it has no beginning and no end, 
but the cause of its existence is not inherent in it, 
there must be a pure absolute being in a perfect abso- 
luteness, in which no change and no modification can 
be thinkable, and in which the existence of the uni- 
verse is contained. 

The universal matter, as a positive consequence 
of the above arguments, cannot contain in it the per- 



THE CREATION 37 

feet absoluteness of existence. All the opinions of 
the Materialists, from the ancient till our modern 
scientists are based upon false premises. The main 
argument of our scientists to prove the reality of mat- 
ter consists in such an expression : " Do what we will, 
we cannot alter the mass or quantity of a portion of 
matter. We may change its form, state of aggrega- 
tion, dimensions, etc., or (by chemical processes) we 
may entirely alter its appearance and properties, but 
its quantity remains unchanged. But this experi- 
mental result on the reality of matter is no evidence 
at all. The science of chemistry, having adopted a 
certain number of "elements," confesses that "the 
list of elements is not from an absolute belief in their 
real oneness of nature, but from the absence of any 
evidence that they contain more than one description 
of matter." Because the atoms are exceedingly small 
beings, and all the craft of man cannot avail to dis- 
solve them or to combine them into molecules, there- 
fore they have not an "absolute belief" in their real 
oneness of nature. In the same way they can never 
have any evidence of any reality of matter and force 
of their objective appearance, for it may be that if 
the craft of man would be greater, he could dissolve 
the elements or any portion of matter into something 
else, or, it may be also, into nothingness. The whole 
experimental knowledge, therefore, as a human experi- 



38 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

ment only by the human limitation, by the sensual 
perception, has no evidence of any reality of matter. 

The existence of the universe cannot be explained 
by the pantheism of the great philosopher, Bene- 
dictus de Spinoza. I have already published , two 
pamphlets of a little different kind, in which I have 
attacked the whole system of Spinoza and of many 
other philosophers, but I will bring here again many 
arguments against Spinoza, in which system all the 
systems of all philosophers are concentrated, in order 
that my whole system should be complete in this 
book. 

Spinoza says : 

1. Cogitatio attributum Dei est, sive Deus est res 
Cogitans. 

2. Extensio attributum Dei est, sive Deus est 
extensa. 

Translation : i. Cogitation (thought) is an attri- 
bute of Divinity, or Divinity is a thinking Being. 

2. Extension is an attribute of Divinity, or Divin- 
ity is an extensive Being. 

According to these cardinal principles of his 
system, there is one being in the universe which 
manifests itself by its two principal attributes : the 
attribute of Cogitation {intellectuality or thought) and 
the attribute of Extension (creation, physical). The 
attribute of Thought is the universal soul ; the attri- 



THE CREATION 



39 



bute of Extension is the universal matter. The Being 
in its necessarily absolute nature puts forth from itself 
concepts or attributes endless in time, space and num- 
ber, and reveals itself in each of them in limitless 
eternal existence ; all these attributes are one in the 
substance or Being itself. Man can conceive only 
of two distinct attributes. Thought and Extension, 
because he is composed of body and soul. Thus, the 
concept of Extension — which is the universal matter 
— is eternal and endless ; and all the particularized 
beings in the universe which are limited in time and 
in space are but modifications of the universal Being 
through the attribute of Extension. Every particu- 
larized being is such by the causation of a particular- 
ized being that preceded it, and the latter again was 
caused by another particularized being still more 
previous, and so forth without end. All compound 
objects in the universe appear as particularized beings 
through the eternal activity of the Extension of the 
absolute substance or Being. The Substance acts 
and is acted upon ; it acts in nature and is acted upon 
by nature. In the active and passive states of the Sub- 
stance particularizationsare manifested by their chang- 
ing in time and space ; but they are all one in the attri- 
bute of Extension which is universal matter. The 
universal matter according to Spinoza, is like unto 
the heaving sea. It strikes waves and billows of 



40 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

different magnitude and form, which form and rise in 
one second and are reduced to the mother element in 
the next to make room for other formations like them. 
It is well known what those waves are and what 
becomes of them. The wave in rising is but a modi- 
fication of the sea, it is the sea itself; when it falls, it 
is but reduced to its natural level ; it is not destroyed 
or lost. The sea and its waves are one and the same 
thing ; thus the universal matter and the particular- 
ized objects are identically the same. 

Such, also, is the case with the attribute of 
Thought, which is the universal soul. It is endless 
and eternal in itself, and all particularized thoughts 
or imaginations in every individual being and man, 
are but modifications of the attribute of Thought. 
Every individual concept is caused by the attribute 
of Thought, because it is actuated by another indi- 
vidual conception that preceded it, which was also 
caused by the attribute of Thought, because it was 
actuated by a third individual conception that was 
more previous, and so forth without end. All the 
sentimental images and thoughts of every existing 
being, even the intelligence of man, like will, desire, 
love, hate, anger and other abstract conceptions, 
which are limited in time or in space, appear to us as 
particularized thoughts and as modifications through 
the eternal activity of universal Thought. Those 



THE CREATION 



41 



attributes, Cogitation and Extension, with many other 
attributes of an endless number, are absolutely one in 
the absolute Substance, Divinity or Universe. 

This theory of Spinoza was a stumbling-block to 
all philosophers of the last two centuries, for they 
have ignored every pure and lofty idea for the notion 
that nature works by necessity. The Substance itself 
which Spinoza predicates, and which is the Divinity 
creating and sustaining the universe, with all its 
exalted attributes, such as the soul, the eternal truth, 
righteousness, justice, are all just as all material works 
of nature. God Himself, who is Spinoza's Substance) 
is the matter of which the soul and all the working 
forces of nature are composed. Thus there is no dis- 
tinction between man and beast, for they are all one 
in the universal Substance which is God. Analyzing 
the various cosmical theories which have been pro- 
pounded for the last two centuries, even those systems 
which seem to be against Spinoza, we find that they 
were all founded on this Spinozism, which in itself is 
false, according to the following demonstrations : 

I. — The attribute of Extension may be revealed 
to us in universal matter. For the universal matter, 
from which all compound objects are composed, is 
everywhere the same. All the numerous bodies of 
the universe, however different in their respective 
qualities and quantities, in whatever way they may 



42 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

be conceived by us, whatever change they may under- 
go in time and space, are one as regards matter. The 
universal matter is the atoms which are ever alike in 
all compound objects. The same atoms (or elements) 
which compose the brains of men compose also the 
feet and the other members of the human body. 
They are equally the same in the animal, the vegeta- 
ble and the mineral products of nature. The atoms 
composing the mineral change in their grouping and 
become a vegetable, and then they change again 
and form a man. So, also, in their reverse : the atoms 
which compose the man change in their grouping, and 
become a mineral, a vegetable and an animal object- 
The atoms are the matter of which all the objects of 
the universe are composed, and all the variations of 
compound objects are due only to the variations in 
the grouping of these atoms. The work of grouping 
may be due to the activity of the universal Substance, 
which, according to Spinoza, is the attribute of Exten- 
sion in God, and manifests itself in the particulariza- 
tion of objects or in its modifications. But the attribute 
of Cogitation, which is absolute wisdom, does not 
contain in itself all abstract conceptions. The con- 
ception that the three angles of a triangle are equal 
to two rectilineal angles has nothing in common with 
the conceptions of desire, love, hate and all other 
offsprings of the imagination. The imaginationaf 



THE CREATION 43 

man and of other living beings may change one into 
the other and one after the other by various causes, 
at various times and according to various dispositions 
of the individuals. But the absolute fact that the 
three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles 
can never change ; for the pure intellect, as such, is 
not conditioned by time or by space, and cannot 
change by the limits of time or space or of the animal 
disposition. The source of true wisdom cannot change 
into a source of folly or into any other conception of 
the imagination. Thus, if the attribute Cogitation, 
which is, according to Spinoza, the absolute universal 
wisdom, reveals itself in the human intelligence, in 
any conception of the mathematical or logical infer- 
ences, it can never be revealed in any foolishness or 
in any idiotic image, nor in any conception of imagi- 
nation. The attribute of Cogitation, which is the 
source of all pure absolute wisdom, cannot be at 
the same time the source of the imagination to 
contradict itself, and, consequently, all the imagin- 
ations of any living being, as they do not belong 
to the universal matter — because they all have one 
source in the soul or mind (idea) of all the living 
beings — according to Spinoza, they also do not 
belong to the universal Wisdom, because Wisdom 
is only wisdom, and only the source of wisdom. 
All imaginations of the whole living soul, therefore. 



44 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

do not exist as modifications of Spinoza's one univer- 
sal Substance. 

2. — The attribute of Extension can be conceived 
as a Substance which manifests itself in the universal 
matter of which all the different compound objects 
are modified. The compound object, as such, becomes 
what it is only after a previous compound object was 
changed and dissolved in the atoms of its composi- 
tion, and after those atoms have grouped together in 
a new manner to form a new object. The quantity 
and quality of the new object are an outcome of the 
quantity and quality of the object that preceded it, 
only after the latter has changed its quality altogether 
and the form of its quantity to yield the material for 
the new formation. Thus, all compound objects come 
one from the other and change one into the other by 
an endless chain of causation through the everlasting 
activity of universal matter, which may be called the 
Substance of Extension. But the attribute of Cogi- 
tation, absolute wisdom, can never be conceived as 
such a Substance which modifies itself in the uni- 
versal soul, of which all the different and various 
concepts should be modified, for it is never changing 
within itself. The elements of thought do not issue 
forth one from the other and one after another. One 
principle of absolute reason is not dissolved and 
destroyed to make room and to yield material for 



THE CREATION 45 

another one. When we make intellectual combina- 
tions by mathematical or logical methods, building- 
new principles upon the principles which have been 
established before, we cannot destroy the old princi- 
ples, as long as they hold true, for the sake of our 
new mental contrivances ; the old principles must 
remain in their full absolute concept. The knowl- 
edge in man may be 7neditated by previous knowledge 
or principles ; we may have the knowledge of one 
thing only through the knowledge of many other 
things. Before we learn that the angles of a triangle 
are equal to two right angles, we must know — first, 
that the two angles on one side of any two intersect- 
ing lines are equal to two right angles ; second, that 
two parallel lines cut through by one transverse line 
form equal angles on each side of the transverse line, 
and third, that a diagonal line running through two 
parallel lines forms exterior angles with the one which 
are equal to the interior angles which it forms with 
the other parallel line. By these three propositions 
we arrive at the fourth one — that the three angles of 
a triangle are equal to two rectilineal angles. As our 
material being, as men, is accidental in the universal 
matter, and our brains, by the instrumentality of 
which we think, are particularized and changeable, 
we are unable to arrive at the knowledge of existing 
things as they are, because our thinking is interfered 



46 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

with many differing and varying imaginations, coming 
and going by the variable impressions of the senses 
on the brain. But, for all this, none of the simplest 
conceptions of the truth is destroyed to make room 
for the more general conception which includes them. 
Neither of the three mathematical propositions is 
destroyed by the truth we learn about the angles of 
the triangles. A mathematical inference is not caused 
by previous mathematical inferences or propositions, 
as is the case with the universal matter. The three 
angles of the triangle are equal to two right angles, 
not because they are caused by the above three math- 
ematical propositions to be equal, but simply because 
they are so — because they are neither more nor less. 
Neither this truth, nor that of the propositions by 
which we arrive at it, is changed in quality or in 
quantity for the process of our conception of them, 
for there is no quality or quantity in intellectual con- 
ceptions. The elements of intellectuality are not 
issuing one from the other or changing one into the 
other in the order of certain causes. They are each 
independent and mentally apart, perfectly absolute, 
Indestructible and eternal. The attribute of Exten- 
sion, therefore, being conceived as a Substance which 
modifies itself in an infinite number of different forms? 
as the universal matter, in which each one appears 
only after the other has already disappeared, is posi- 



THE CREATION 47 

lively not identical with the attribute Cogitation, 
which is conceived as an intellectual Substance of the 
whole universal Wisdom, in which no one of the 
infinite number of the mental images which the uni- 
versal Wisdom may contain is modified by a previous 
one. Thus the universal Substance which is con- 
ceived as the universal Wisdom, which is never modi- 
fied or changeable, cannot be at the same time the 
universal matter ; it must be conceived only by the 
one attribute of Cogitation, in which no other attri- 
bute or modification can be thinkable besides His 
Intellect. 

3. — The attribute of Extension, universal matter, 
is active and passive ; for all compound objects change 
one from the other and one into the other by the uni- 
versal activity ; the perpetual changing is the univer- 
sal activity. Every action, as an action, must of a 
necessity change ; for as the force acts upon matter 
the latter changes, and this change produces a change 
in the force itself. Thus the Substance of Extension, 
universal matter and the universal force acting in it, 
must reveal itself by the changing of forms, or by the 
accidents of time and of space through its perpetual 
activity ; it is at once active and acted upon. But 
the attribute of Cogitation, absolute wisdom acts not 
and is not acted upon ; and does not reveal itself by 
accidents or modifications. Action, which is nothing 



48 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

but change, can occur by will or by compulsion ; but 
absolute wisdom has no will and no compulsion. A 
man having acquired wisdom and embraced princi- 
ples, is actuated upon, by that wisdom, only in his 
physical or material constitution, only in his bodily 
relations because he is composed of matter. The 
action in the body of the thinking man consists in 
this, that the wisdom prompts him to avoid certain 
material impressions, to prevent them affecting his 
brain, the instrument of cogitation, in order to be 
able to use his instrument, his brain, only to that 
purpose to acquire wisdom and embrace the true 
knowledge of things. This material instrument of 
thought is subject to will or compulsion ; the man 
may or may not search for the true knowledge of 
existence by his instrument. About the same is it 
with the physical triangle which is a material thing 
limited by three lines ; it must (by compulsion) have 
three angles equalling to two right angles. Will 
and compulsion exist only in matter and for matter, 
because it is changeable through its inherent activity 
or from without. But the pure intellectual, or (as it 
is generally called) the mathematical triangle has 
neither will nor compulsion. The abstract triangle 
and its proportions do not come either from the will 
or by compulsion of the universal wisdom in which 
they exist. That universal wisdom is not limited by 



THE CREATION 49 

the lines of the triangle or by any dimension of any 
physical figure, but outside of all limitations it con- 
tains the laws or ideas of the truth, which embraces 
all things and judges every thing by its very being. 
An intellectual principle has neither will nor com- 
pulsion nor activity of any kind. Thus the Being 
of Intellectuality, Absolute Wisdom, is not one with 
the Substance of extension. The latter which is uni- 
versal matter, is active and subject to action (passive) 
and manifests itself in various particularized accidents. 
But the Being of Intellectuality is neither active nor 
passive, and does not manifest itself in particularized 
accidents ; it is an absolute unity in itself, without 
any change in all eternity. 

Man is an accidental being in the substance of 
extension, because his body is a mode of matter in 
various compositions, which come one from the other 
and follow one another by a chain of causation in the 
changing of the conditions of universal matter. But 
he is not an accidental being in the Being of Intel- 
lectuality itself, in the mind universal. There is no 
diflference between the thinking man and the thinking 
Divinity, but in the body. The brain of the human 
body as an accident of the substance of extension, 
depending on the changes of conditions, time and 
place, cannot comprehend at once^ in one conception 
all the truths which are in the absolute, endless. 



50 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Mind ; but all the truths which the human mind can 
conceive are identically the same as those contained 
in the endless Mind, in the Being of Intellectuality 
itself. The man, for instance, conceives one thought 
that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two 
right angles ; a second thought that the two sides of 
a triangle taken together are more than the remaining 
third side ; a third thought that all the straight lines 
drawn from the centre to the periphery of a circle are 
equal to each other. Thus he has two judgments or 
intellectual conceptions about one figure and one 
judgment about a different figure. Yet there is no 
change or variation in any of those judgments ; for 
they are invariable in quality, and they do not issue 
forth one from the other by a chain of causation in 
the Being of Intellectuality, nor can they be changed 
one for the other. All these three judgments are 
an absolute unit in the knowledge of the compound 
beings of universal existence ; they are external of 
those beings and beyond them, and self-existing in 
the oneness of the knowledge of universal existence. 
To man they appear singly because his brain cannot 
comprehend all the compound objects of the universe 
and judge about them at once in their general exist- 
ence, at every given instance of time. But the Being 
of Intellectuality, Absolute Wisdom, Divinity which 
contains in itself all compound objects that were, are 



THE CREATION 51 

and ever may be — embraces within itself the knowl- 
edge of the universe as one absolute unit. In it, 
therefore, all the intellectual judgments which are the 
very being of the entire universe in general, are one 
absolute unit in all eternity. The pure human intel- 
lect, therefore, as a real being, is not merely caused 
by God, because it is actuated by a different intellect 
of actual existence, as Spinoza opines, but it is Divin- 
ity itself, the Being of Intellectuality. The imagina- 
tion of man, however, such as will, lust, love and all 
superstitious beliefs, foolishness and all vicious inclina- 
tions, as they are always changing, being produced 
only by the accident of matter and force, not directly 
by pure intellect, are not modes of the attribute Cogi- 
tation in God, as Spinoza says ; but they are modifica- 
tions of the universal matter and force, which is 
positively not Divinity. To express this more clearly, 
— all the acts of imagination in man as well as in 
animated beings, in each according to his disposi- 
tion and bodily peculiarities — are merely forces 
that are active in matter ; it is the feeling and 
emotion, the material vitality of animal and man. 
They change and vary, issue forth one from the other 
and one after the other in the succession of causation 
by the action of the forces in their nervous systems — 
in the matter of the universe. But the intellect of 
man, which conceives judgments about the knowl- 



52 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

edge of the existence of the compound objects which 
are in the man himself and which are outside of him, 
is not a force working in matter. This human intel- 
lect is not in man^ not in his bodily composition, but it 
comes to him through the human brain. The man 
with the human brain (which is an instrument of 
thought, as the microscope and the telescope are 
instruments of vision) conceives of universal existence 
by the reflection of thoughts or cogitations which are 
the Absolute Universal Wisdom. The glory of Uni- 
versal Wisdom fills the whole universe, and the 
human brain is the instrument of reflection in which 
the Universal Wisdom is reflected. Wisdom itself is 
the knowledge of wisdom, which is neither active nor 
actuated ; it has no variety of concept and no mode ; 
it does not reveal itself in single, various and differ- 
ing aspects ; it is one absolute unity in itself, without 
any change in all eternity. 

The error of Spinoza, and of all the philosophers 
who preceded and who followed him, is that, since 
man cannot form a judgment in his mind before he 
knows some preliminary propositions and axioms, 
and has already experienced and experimented with 
many single phenomena by his senses, as I have said 
before, all the judgments of the mind are, according 
to their notions, single concepts of the single objec- 
tive objects in the matter of the brain — like all other 



THE CREATION 53 

muscular senses, and like all images of the imagina- 
tion of man and of all animal beings, issuing forth 
one from the other and following one another in the 
order of causation in the force and matter of the 
objective world. So that the " mental changes " in 
the mind are coming and going in the chain of 
causation, just as the material changes of the bodily 
constitution itself. Many of the ancient and modern 
philosophers have, therefore, assumed that the intel- 
lect of man is the same as all other active forces 
working in matter, and that there is neither a separate 
existence to the consciousness in man nor an absolute 
substance in the universe besides force and matter. 
Upon this assumption were based many systems which 
differ one from the other in their singularities, but 
which are all confused by this one error, that they 
know not and understand not the real nature of 
things by their previous causes. 

When we come to inquire into the nature of 
things before we have a clear knowledge of their 
previous causes, we see that man, as a material being, 
is an accident of the changeable universal matter. 
Working with the matter of his brain as with an 
instrument to conceive of the being of all creatures, 
of their appearances, nature and causes, he must form 
in his mind an image of the thing which exists in 
actuality, in order to have an abstract existence of 



54 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

that thing in the mind. When we think of a mathe- 
matical triangle, we must at the same time have a 
physical triangle in the mind. The- atoms of the 
brain, being reflected by the matter of the physical 
triangle through the sensual perception, are grouped 
together in the form of a triangle in the brain, so that 
we are enabled to judge by the matter, the triangle 
ui acto about the triangle in abstracto. Thus we get 
the abstract triangle only after the actual or physical 
triangle has been formed ; the actual triangle, which 
is material, gives us the knowledge of the abstract 
triangle. 

Those material facts were the bases of all the 
assumptions of the philosophers and scientists regard- 
ing the human intelligence or the consciousness of 
man, that it is only an active force of his bodily con- 
stitution, coming in the brain from the outside 
appearance of the objective world into the mind. It 
is the excitements of the motion of his body, coming 
in the brain through the sensory nerves and trans- 
mitting through the brain to the motor nerves, as 
Professor Huxley has fully explained. 

The truth itself, however, teaching us that the 
material facts of the single things are -the causes of 
our knowledge, teaches us that those material facts, 
again, are caused by previous material facts. That the 
material existence of every single thing is the resul^ 



THE CREATION 55 

of a previous material existence of a previous thing, 
which was the cause of its existence by a certain law, 
as a mathematical inference. That the physical trian- 
gle, as a material compound object, could not come 
into existence without a cause that was previous to 
it ; for, as we see it now in realization before us as a 
particularized compound object, it must have existed 
in potency (in the possibility) before, in a compound 
object that preceded it in time and was the cause of 
its formation. So that the cause of its formation was 
contained in a previous object which has contained 
the formation of the triangle before it was formed. 
And that if we could know the cause which has pro- 
duced the physical triangle, we could know the 
triangle in abstraction before it has been formed in 
actuality. Thus the m^aterial existences of all things 
in actuality, of the objective world, are thus joined to- 
gether in one general relation in the one mathematical 
bond or in the one intellectual abstraction of the 
entire universe, which stands altogether beyond the 
objective world and before it is formed in actuality. 

We must understand, as a positive fact, that the 
laws of nature, under which all objects of the object- 
ive world are subjected, are not caused by the objects 
themselves. Because the origin of every object is the 
cause in a previous object under a certain law ; it 
arises in its certain existence through a certain cause. 



56 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

which is forced to be the cause to that object by a 
certain law ; that law, as a consequence, must be 
positively previous lo the cause and more previous to 
that object. The whole objective world is nothing 
else but an aggregate of single objects, each of which 
came into existence through a certain cause, forced 
by a certain law. And that there was no time 
and no place where and when an object, as au object 
of the objective world, came into existence to generate 
by itself and for itself the cause and the law of its 
own very being and existence. The single objects of 
the objective world, again, although they are sepa- 
rated and diflferent in their singularities, change one 
into the other and one after the other through the 
same general causes, under the same general laws by 
which they themselves came into their singular exist- 
ence. So that every object in actuality, in its object- 
ive state, is related to another object in a deeper 
unity, in its subjective state ; and that object in its 
objective state is related also to another one in its 
subjective state, and so on. That all the single objects 
in the endless universe, of the objective world, are 
related to each other in one general relation, in the 
one subjective world. That the material existence of 
the physical universe does not bring about the abstract 
or intellectual existence. That the general relation or 
the abstraction of the objects in the mind, the causes 



THE CREATION 5/ 

and laws, are not in an abstraction and intellectual 
existence, because these objects are in the actual 
existence from which they were abstracted ; but the 
objects are in their actual existence only because they 
have the possibility in abstraction, in the one general 
relation and in the intellectual existence, to be in an 
actual existence. That the abstraction of all things 
contains in its possibility, in its potentiality, the rela- 
tion of all things that can be in an actual existence, 
before they were in existence, and the potentiality 
itself is the mathematical result from the intellect, 
previous to All. So that if we know the cause, we 
know also the eflfect it produces ; and if man could 
know the causes of all compound objects of the uni- 
verse, he could have in his mind the whole universe 
before it was ever formed, before it came into actual 
existence. 

Now what I have said before — that the mechanic 
has a mental image in his brain of the machine which 
he intends to build before it is constructed in actuality? 
only because he has some preliminary propositions 
and axioms, and only because he has experimented 
with many single phenomena — I mean to say thereby 
only this, that the new constructed machine is a 
mathematical inference from many physical objects 
that are previous in existence. So that, since the 
mechanic has many single ideas of many single things 



5^ THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

in his brain, wliicli are subjected under the subjective 
world by the mathematical inferences of the whole 
mathematical bond— standing by itself in a perfect 
absoluteness previous and beyond the physical world 
— all the ideas of those objects in -his brain, therefore, 
are converted into a subjective thought, to meditate a 
new system of forces : a new machine. Should we 
assume that the objective existence of the physical 
objects were not subjected under a subjective world, 
all the ideas of the many single phenomena, of all the 
single things, were, then, only single concepts in his 
brain without any relation to each other. For all the 
material facts of the material objects represent only 
the objective forms of the objective existence of the 
objects, in their being separated and different one 
from the other ; and the association of the ideas in 
the brain through such material facts were then only 
single concepts separated and differing one from the 
other, and they were never able to be composed in 
one general thought, to allow any inference, nor any 
analytical or any synthetical result. If you put in 
your pocket a watch, a chain and a ring, you will 
have in your pocket three different things which never 
will come, in your pocket, to be one thing. The 
physical universe as a whole or the totality of the 
objective world is nothing else but the single parts it 
contains, and the association of ideas of many single 



THE CREATION 59 

parts in the brain were only single ideas of single 
things without any relation to each other. You may 
combine many single things in one chemical combina- 
tion to become one thing ; but what will you have 
then ? No more and no less than before. If the ideas 
of all things were not, in an absolute general relation, 
previous and beyond all things ; if the objective world 
were not subjected under the rules and laws of a sub- 
jected world beyond it, in a deeper unity, all ideas in 
the brain of man were never able to be combined in 
one relation, in a deeper unity, to contrive thoughts 
or to meditate something new. No mechanic and no 
inventor was ever able to construct or to invent any 
new system of forces, any new machine or any new 
invention. 

Thus, we are forced to come to this positive con- 
clusion : that the objective world is subjected under 
the Siibjective World, and that the ideas of all things 
are previous and beyond all things, in an absolute 
relation. The man, therefore, being himself a single, 
object of the objective world, transferred from the 
Subjective World through the potential into the objec- 
tive world, must be returned, when he comes to con- 
trive thoughts, from the objective world through the 
potential into the Subjective World. He must perceive 
the objective forms of the objects by his senses, which 
are objective instruments to bring over the objective 



6o THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

forms into a potential world, in the brain, in which 
all ideas are associated in a potential state, as those 
ideas are abstracted from the things and associated in 
one instrument. In that state they are nearer to their 
previous generality and produce a lower kind of knowl- 
edge, which may be called the " Cognition," to which 
belong all the sensual perceptions and all kinds of 
imaginations in animal and man. When a man 
remains in that state he possesses only the potential 
knowledge as all animal beings ; but when he exerts 
himself to contemplate, to meditate and to judge by 
the same ideas upon the same ideas in the brain ; and 
as each idea in its previous Subjective state contains 
all the infinite ideas of the Subjective World in one 
general relation, all these ideas in the brain of that 
man become more and more generalized, nearer and 
nearer to their previous Subjectivity, to bring that 
man to the higher degrees of knowledge, to contrive 
thoughts, to meditate new machines, to scrutinize the 
mysteries of the universe and to be in Divinity itself. 
We thus arrive at the positive general conclusion 
of the nature of creation in general by the above 
demonstrations. Every particularized compound ob- 
ject in the universe is the issue of a cause that preceded 
it, and that cause, again, was generated by another 
cause which was still more previous and so forth 
without end. All compound objects come one from 



THE CREATION 6l 

the other and one after the other by a certain order, 
by a chain of certain causes without beginning and 
without end. Thus all the causes are joined in the 
one general order, in an everlasting bond in the one 
principal cause which has brought the universe into 
actual existence. So that the actual existence of the 
universe consists in the potential existence of the one 
principal cause. And, again, all the subsequent causes 
come from and merge into the one principal cause 
according to certain absolute laws, which are the laws 
of nature, or rather the laws of Intellectuality which 
never change. That we have no manifestation in 
nature which is not formed by the mathematical infer- 
ences, which are the laws of Nature. That if we know 
the cause of a certain manifestation we have an image 
of that manifestation in our mind before it ever comes 
into actual existence. That all the working causes of 
the universe and all the manifestations of nature 
which follow these causes exist through the laws of 
Intellectuality which preceded them. So that the 
actual (or manifested) existence of the universe, which 
is the matter we have before us, was generated in 
potential existence in the general cause, and the 
general universal cause was produced in the Being of 
Intellectuality. We thus arrive at the general and 
absolute judgment that the Being of Intellectuality, 
which is Absolute Wisdom, eternal and unchangeable 



62 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Truth, contains within itself all the compound objects 
that were, that are and that ever shall be in inanifested 
existence — in one absolute ideal existence. Absolute 
Wisdom is the abstract image of the whole universe 
in general, and this is the laws of nature. The laws 
of nature, therefore, which are the laws of Wisdom, 
constitute the everlasting general existence in the 
Being of Intellectuality itself, from which the universe 
as a whole, in its potential state and in its manifesta- 
tion, is an Absolute Emanation, through an absolute 
one intellectual cause, of the Absolute Intellectuality. 
Absolute Intellectuality is the general intellectual 
image of all intellectual objects that can be thinkable 
in the Absoluteness of the Intellectuality, as mathe- 
matical inferences in one mathematical bond, stauding 
by itself in a perfect Absoluteness in all eternity. It 
is neither active nor acted upon, for there is no activ- 
ity in pure intellect, which never changes. The 
Intellection of Intellectuality or the Cogitation in it 
is identical with it — neither active nor acted upon, it 
is unchangeable. The Cogitation itself is the all- 
embracing thinking power, so to speak, in Intellectu- 
ality. Thinking of one mental image of the infinite 
number of the mental images, it thinks with the same 
thought all the infinite mental images of all the 
intellectual objects that can be thinkable in an intel- 
lectual existence in the Absolute Intellectuality 



THE CREATION 63 

without end. For the knowledge of one intellectual 
thing contains in itself the knowledge of the whole 
infinite number of the intellectual things that can 
be thinkable in Absolute Mind ; one mental image 
is the inference of the other, and, at the same time, 
the inference of each of all the countless images that 
can be in an Intellectual existence ; they all are One 
in their mutual intertwined relations, as the Laws of 
Intellectuality, conceived in one thought, the Abso- 
lute Mind, So that the Cogitation of the mental 
image "A" cogitates at the same time the mental 
image " B " and the mental image " C " and all the 
infinite number of the mental images, and the Cogi- 
tation of the mental image " B "cogitates at the same 
time the mental image "A" and the mental image 
"C" and the whole infinite number of the mental 
images without end, and so on. That in the infinity 
of their infinite number dwells the infinity of the 
infinite inferences of each other ; and in the infinity 
of the infinite inferences dwells the infinity of the 
infinite number. So that the Cogitation oscillates 
from one infinity to the other in the Intellectuality ; 
and oscillating from one infinity of the infinite num- 
ber into the other infinity of the infinite inferences, 
and oscillating again from the infinity of the infinite 
inferences into the other infinity of the infinite num- 
ber, produces Intellectual Waves in the whole Intel- 



64 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

lectuality, through which an infinite 1 ntellectual Light 
radiates and photographs a Spiritual Substance qualified 
to the Intellectuality, in which all mental images /a^^- 
over at once^ in an absolute generality, from their 
idealistic state in the Absolute Intellectuality, into a 
potential state in this Spiritual Substance. This Spir- 
itual Substance I call the Universal (or Absolute) 
Essence ; (the meaning of the term " Spiritual Sub- 
stance," its nature, existence and its manifestation, 
will be fully explained further on). And since the 
Absolute Intellectuality is the Intellectual Image of 
all the objects— that ever can be in an universal 
existence — in one Absolute Generality, and in which 
each of all the intellectual objects in their One Unity 
are at the same time mentally cognizable and sepa- 
rately conceived as singular Intellectual Waves, one 
in the other, in their mutual intertwined relations in 
the Absolute Generality, the radiation of the Intel- 
lectual I/ight, therefore, is conceived of a two-fold 
one : The radiation of the Absolute Generality is the 
Universal Essence in its generality, its potential state, 
and the radiation of the Intellectual Waves as sepa- 
rately conceived, one in the other, is the universe in 
manifestation. Let me explain more clearly : It has 
already been proved before that the universe in gen- 
eral has no limits, no beginning and no end ; it is an 
eternal being, but the cause of its existence is not 



THE CREATION 65 

contained in itself, for it is ever changing, so that it 
is a self-staiiding beings but not a self-existing. It is 
also proved above that all the manifestations of objects 
and all the transformations of forces are subjected 
under the mathematical inferences, issuing forth one 
from the other and one after the other, which are, 
every one, in an absolute existence in the mathema- 
tical bond, standing by itself previous to all things 
and beyond them, which I call " Absolute Intellectu- 
ality," the God of the universe. So that the absolute 
existence of the Absolute Intellectuality is the eternal 
existence of the universe. As long as the Intellectu- 
ality exists, the universe exists ; if, however, the 
Intellectuality should cease existing one second, the 
universe would not be in existence. But the Absolute 
Intellectuality is neither active nor acted upon, as I 
have proved before. There was no cause previous to 
Him which brought Him into existence, and there is 
no succeeding cause which made the universe emanate 
from Him into existence. For, as He has no cause 
previous to Him — because, as he is never changing 
by His own nature, in His Nature is contained His 
Eternity — so, also, he has no succeeding cause which 
made the universe emanate from Him, because, as He 
is the Intellectual Image of the universe by His own 
Nature, in His Nature is contained all mental images 
of the particularized objective world, as a whole, in 



66 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

an Absolute Subjectivity, iu which each mental 
image is a mathematical inference to an objective 
object which is ^subjected under it lo be produced 
The universe, therefore, must be an eternity with 
Him ; so that there was not, there is not, and there 
will not be one moment in which God was, is, and 
will be without the universe. But it is not an eternity 
in Him, as is revealed in its manifestations, which are 
changeable. The creation of the universe, therefore, 
as an eternal creation, is an eternal emanation of the 
Absolute Intellectuality ; not as a working cause in 
Him which could have a beginning or end, but the 
thinking power — the Cogitation itself— is the Absolute 
Eternal Emanator by its own nature. Since in the 
Absolute Intellectuality are cogitated all objects which 
can exist in an objective world according to the Laws 
of Intellectuality in one eternal, general and absolute 
totality, as a mathematical bond to the whole objec- 
tive world, which each of them is subjected under its 
inference to be produced — and it must be produced, 
not as a necessity by a certain working cause, but as 
a mathematical inference — it is the Absolute Emana- 
tion in which the universe as a whole in its potential 
generality is ever produced. And since the Cogita- 
tion in Intellectuality oscillates from one infinity into 
the other, producing thereby Intellectual Waves in 
the whole Intellectuality ; so each Wave, each mental 



THE CREATION 6^ 

image, each mathematical inference, is mentally 
separated, known and cognizable one in the other in 
their mutual intertwined relations and separately- 
conceived in the one Absolute Generality, which each 
of them is an inference to a certain object of the object- 
ive world, subjected under that inference to be pro- 
duced in an objective state — it is the Absolute Emana- 
tion in which the universe in its manifestation is ever 
produced. So that each object becomes existing and 
cognizable in actuality, one from the other and one 
after the other, by the mathematical inferences, the 
laws of nature which are the Laws of Intellectuality 
as they all are conceived one in the other in the Abso- 
lute Intellectuality. 

This emanation which we conceive as twofold, is 
contained in one absolute unity. The Cogitation of 
Absolute Intellectuality, which is the meditation of 
the Intellectual lyaws for all objects of actual exist- 
ence — that they should exist in the objective world 
according to the Laws of Intellectuality — is the Intel- 
lectuality itself, the Intellectual Image of the entire 
universe in one Absolute Unity. Thus, the Absolute 
Generality is contained in each and every one of the 
infinite number of the Intellectual Waves, — in every 
mental Image is contained the whole Intellectuality ; 
as one inference contains all inferences that ever can 
be inferred by the unlimited mathematical bond, the 



68 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Generality, therefore, cannot be conceived as a totality 
of single images, but as a Generality of a perfect 
absoluteness, as an Absolute Unity. That the Intel- 
lectual Light of the Intellectual Waves, which are 
separately conceived as single images, through which 
the Absolute Emanation of these Intellectual Images 
emanates the universe in its particularization, in its 
single parts, which are separately produced, is entirely 
the Absolute Emanation of the Absolute Generality 
itself, as the whole generality is contained in each of 
the infinite number of the Intellectual Waves. So 
that the universe in its potential generality and in its 
objective individuality^ which seems to be in a twofold 
existence by a twofold emanation, is also but in one 
eternal existence ; the external ^yivsX.^v.QQ. of the object- 
ive world, which is the non-absolute existence of the 
individuality, is in the 2i}oso\\}X^ intensive existence, 
which it has in its general potency. That the totality 
of each individual intellectual object, which is also 
an absolute generality, distributed through the entire 
objective world ; that the objective existence is con- 
tained in the Subjectivity of each of the Infinite 
Generalities, in one absolute Unity. 

By this we can well understand the creation of the 
universe as an Emanation of Absolute Intellectuality, 
and the reason why the human intelligence does not 
emanate from the things that he meditates in his 



THE CREATION 69 

mind, from their intellectual existence in the human 
mind into an actual existence in the objective world. 
I have proved before that the man who arrived to 
the highest degree of the wisdom of the mind iS) 
then, the very substance of Absolute Intellectuality, 
the Divinity itself, and that the Intellectuality ema- 
nates all mental images that are cogitated in intellect- 
uality from their idealistic state into their actual 
state through the potentiality of the universe. The 
question arises. Why did not the mind of man bring 
forth the compound objects which it cogitates in the 
same manner as the universe was brought forth from 
the Absolute Intellectuality? The wisdom of the 
mind in man is the very wisdom of the Absolute 
Mind of Divinity, and from the latter come forth the 
compound objects of the whole universe, which con- 
stitute the universe in general and in its particulari- 
zations, so that these compound objects exist in 
actuality as they are known and conceived in the 
Absolute Mind. Why, then, should not the compound 
objects come forth which are known and conceived 
in the mind of man, so that they should exist in 
actuality as they are conceived in the mind of man ? 
When the mind of man conceives the image of a 
triangle, why should not that conception become a 
triangle in actuality? The truth, however, is, as I 
have proved above — the Wisdom of the Absolute 



70 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Intellectuality is One, Eternal, and an Absolute Gen- 
erality. The Absolute Mind embraces all that Wisdom 
can conceive in one absolute Generality. In this one 
eternal and absolute Generality, through the whole 
Intellectual Waves, springs up the universe as a whole, 
its one generality, at once^ by one eternal general and 
absolute emanation. For all the compound objects, 
in endless numbers, which can exist by the Laws of 
Intellectuality in the endless dimensions of the uni- 
verse, are comprehended in one eternal general and 
absolute conception of the Absolute Mind, in the 
very Being of Intellectuality, in the name of Jehovah, 
the lyord of the universe. By this conception, they 
issue forth from their absolute existence in the Mind 
into their absolute existence in potency, in one gen- 
eral emanation, as the essence of the universe in its 
absolute existence. For the general emanation of all 
the compound objects in general, as they exist in 
potency in the universal essence, is as absolute an 
existence as that of their existence in the Absolute 
Mind itself. But the wisdom of the human mind, 
although all that man conceives by pure wisdom is 
the conception of the Absolute Mind itself, yet, inas- 
much as he is a particularized compound object in 
his material body, and he cannot comprehend in one 
general and absolute conception all that endless wis- 
dom can conceive, and he cannot, therefore, bring 



THE CREATION Jl 

forth out of himself the universe entire, as a whole, 
which is endless, eternal and absolute .... he can- 
not, therefore, bring forth out of himself any particu- 
larized compound object, of its singular state, of 
which his mind conceives, because his wisdom is an 
eternal conception, while the particularized compound 
objects in their singular states, which he conceives, are 
not eternal in actuality, and not of absolute existence, 
and the eternal and absolute wi^^dom of the human 
mind cannot produce a non-eternal and non-absolute 
compound object. When a man conceives the image 
of a triangle, his conception is eternal, ab.solute and 
unchangeable, so that, if all the triangles which exist 
in actuality in the universe should be destroyed and 
put out of existence, the triangle of his conception 
cannot be destroyed or put out of existence ; in this 
wise, no object of actuality can emanate from an 
image conceived by the human mind. Thus, from 
the Wisdom of the Absolute Mind emanates only the 
universe as a whole^ a spiritual image of the Intel- 
lectual Image, the universe in general in its absolute 
existence in potency, which is never destroyed, but 
not the particularized compound objects in their 
existence in actuality, which is not absolute, and 
which constantly suffers destruction. For every par- 
ticularized compound object changes from the image 
of one compound object into the image of another 



72 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

compound object after the previous image — which 
was only an objective image of the objective world, 
appearing in time and place — is entirely destroyed, 
because its existence of objective appearance is non- 
absolute, and it cannot be seen in actiiality through 
the emanation of the Absolute Mind, from the very 
Substance of God, in which all Mental Images that 
can be conceived in the unlimited Absolute Mind are 
contained in each one, as it is separately conceived, 
in a perfect Eternity. Therefore, the particularized 
compound objects of their objectivity which the mind 
of man conceives in its subjectivity, cannot issue forth 
from the subjectivity into objectivity, to come directly 
into actual existence. 

Hereupon, we have to ponder and meditate still 
deeper : If the particularized compound objects do 
not issue forth from the Absolute Mind, in that their 
existence is non-absolute, how do they come into 
existence at all ? Since the universe itself is an abso- 
lute existence, how is it possible that the absolute 
existence should become non-absolute ? The truth 
itself, however, is conceived clearly and plainly. The 
particularized compound objects are not emanated 
from the very Light of the Mind, from the Essence of 
Intellectuality ; nor do they issue forth from the 
essence of the universe to assume an individual exist- 
ence, so that the objective appearances should have 



THE CREATION 73 

an objective separated existence of any kind of any 
reality. But inasmuch as the essence of the universe 
issues forth from the very Light of the Mind, as a 
radiation of the Intellectual Waves or as a photo- 
graphic image, its absolute emanation becomes a 
general activity in the universal essence ; and by this 
general activity the universe is actuated. It vibrates 
itself in spiritual waves and reveals itself according 
to time and to place in particularizations, coming one 
from the other and one after the other as they are 
conceived one in the other in the Absolute Mind, in 
the Essence of Intellectuality itself. Indeed, all these 
particularizations are not absolute particularizations, 
not beings of individual existence by themselves, but 
their existence is the absolute general existence in the 
universal essence, in one intensive bond in the one 
general, absolute cause. The physical waves which 
appear before us in the forms of particularized com- 
pound objects, in different states of energy, in mag- 
netism, electricity, heat, light, and so on, changing 
one into the other and balancing each other in time 
and place by a non-absolute existence in the objective 
world, are contained in, and are nothing else but the 
spiritual waves of the universal essence, the substan- 
tiations of the general activity, in an absolute exist- 
ence. The particularized compound objects which 
are perceived by their outward existences in the 



74 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

objective world as single images, separated and differ- 
ing from each other, are conceived by their inward 
existence in the subjective ivorld as an absolute gener- 
ality, inasmuch as every single object is the-inference 
of the previous one, and that previous is the inference 
from a more previous, and so on without end, and so 
also it contains the inference of the coming one, and 
that coming one will contain the inference for a more 
future thing, and so forth without end ; so that each 
single object, as it is one mathematical inference in 
actuality, in its objective existence, it contains in 
itself all mathematical inferences that ever can be 
inferred in the one absolute mathematical Bond of 
the Subjective World. The physical waves in actu- 
ality are the spiritual waves of the potentiality of the 
universe as a whole, which are perceived by their 
different objectivities and conceived by their one Sub- 
jectivity. The universe as a whole, as a self-standing 
being, in that it has no beginning and no end, no 
time and no place, is the general inference of the 
whole mathematical Bond, the Absolute Emanation 
of the whole Intellectuality, dependent upon the 
infinite number of the Intellectual Inferences — of the 
Intellectual Waves of the Absolute Generality ; it 
vibrates in such an infinite number of spiritual waves 
as the infinity of the Intellectual Waves in Intellectu- 
ality is conceived. Bach Intellectual Wave in Intel- 



THE CREATION 75 

lectuality is an Inference to a spiritual wave in the 
potentiality ; and as every Intellectual Inference — 
each Wave — contains in itself all Inferences ihat ever 
can be in the whole mathematical Bond, and at the 
same time each Inference is bounded to the whole 
boundless number of the whole Intellectual Inferences 
by their intertwined relations as an Absolute Gener- 
ality ; that every Mental Image, containing all Mental 
Images that ever can be mentally conceived by a pure 
intellectual conception, is also bounded and inter- 
twined, related to the whole Generality ; each intel- 
lectual Wave, therefore, being an Absolute Emanation 
for a spiritual wave of such a kind in the potentiality 
of the universal essence, emanates itself its whole 
Ability, its Intellectual Faculty and Property in that 
spiritual wave of its kind, in order that this spiritual 
wave should be developed and revealed in actuality, 
in all the physical waves that ever can be in an actual 
existei?ce of the objective world, in order of creation^ 
as it is contained in that Intellectual Wave the whole 
Mental Images of Intellectual Existence, Thus, the 
universe as a whole, as a spiritual generality, emanated 
by the Intellectual Light of the whole Intellectual 
Waves of their Absolute Generality, in which each of 
them contains the whole Generality in itself, manifests 
and reveals itself in the whole physical waves that 
ever can be in an actual existence by their intertwined 



76 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

relations, in a certain order of creation, of causes and 
laws of nature. So that each physical wave, each 
object, each phenomenon, force, impulse and eflfect 
must be produced by a previous one, through a certain 
cause and by a certain law, and must be the produc- 
tion of a future one, through a certain cause by a 
certain law, to be intertwined related to another physi- 
cal wave, to another object and another phenomenon, 
and to be influenced by each other through certain 
causes and laws, which are ruled, controlled and 
sustained by the Intellectual Laws of the Being of 
Intellectuality. 



CHAPTER III. 

MATTER AND FORCE: 
THE UNIVERSE 

IN ITS 

POTENTIALITY AND ACTUALITY 



Preface. 



To analyze or criticise all ideas, all hypotheses, theories 
and systems which have been meditated and composed on 
the field of these sublime subjects, " Matter and Force," 
from the ancient philosophers until the latest scientists, is 
an impossibility for a single person in a single book; and 
perhaps there are many of them which have no value for any 
analytical or critical review, and no importance to warrant 
spending a little space or a little time on them. But, as I 
venture to establish a complete theory, containing the pure 
conception of the universe entire, and to disclose the whole 
mysteries of nature, and at the same time the brains of men 
are filled and packed up with all the fanciful and fantastical 
notions of all the different and various schools, so that it is 
of great difficulty to bring in something clear and pure 
before those brains are purified, I, therefore, am compelled 
to analyze and criticise many ideas, hypotheses or theories 
of the most and the greatest philosophers and scientists, 
from the ancient till the modern times, in order to purify 
the brains of men, to enable them to conceive the eternal 
truth of the universe. 



78 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

In ancient times, Democritus was the founder of 
the atomic theory, a theory of the constitution of 
bodies, which asserts that they are made up of atoms, 
indivisible parts of matter ; that matter, through 
which all bodies of the universe appear before us, 
consists of those small, indivisible particles, called 
atoms. His opponent asserts that all bodies are infin- 
itely divisible, and that there are no atoms, small 
indivisible particles, in existence. 

Anaxagoras propounded the continuity of matter, 
under the name of the doctrine of homoeomeria^ or of 
the similarity of the parts of a body to the whole. 
This is the doctrine of the infinite divisibility of 
bodies^ that the smallest conceivable body has parts, 
and that whatever has parts may be divided. Accord- 
ing to the atomists, the atoms do not fill up the 
universe ; there are void spaces between them. Their 
argument is, that if there were not empty spaces 
between the atoms, there could be no motion, for the 
atoms M''hich give way first must have some empty 
place to move into. The opposite school maintained 
then that there is no vacuum, that every part of space 
is full of matter, and that all motion is like that of a 
fish in the water, which yields in front of the fish 
because the fish leaves room for it behind. Thus 
both theories of those two different schools were, 
and are, the business of science to consider, and 



MATTER AND FORCE 79 

they themselves are not true and their arguments 
not correct. 

The atomists asserted very strongly the distinc- 
tion between matter and space, that the universal 
space is positively not matter ; and as there is not 
anything beyond matter, according to their views, the 
universal space is, consequently, nothing else but an 
absolute nihility ; that the universal space, which is 
nihility, contains in itself the atoms, the origin of 
matter, and those atoms swim from one place of nihil- 
ity into the other, while such an idea is a positive 
absurdity. It is true, the atoms must have some 
empty places to move into, but those empty places 
must be something of existence^ not 7iihility^ for nothing 
can be conceived to exist in nihility ; and as we know 
clearly that the motion of an object is always trans- 
ferred on the other through the empty spaces between 
them, that the empty spaces serve as a conductor to 
the motion, the conductor must be positively an 
existing thing, not a non-existing. The opposite 
school, on the other hand, asserting that the whole 
universal space is full of matter, without any empty 
spaces, they have no right any more to assert that 
matter is divisible. A piece of matter can be divided 
into parts only because empty spaces, which are not of 
that kind, divide it into those parts. The division of 
matter is possible only on account of the empty spaces 



So THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

between the divided parts ; and if there were not 
empty spaces in the universe, matter would never be 
divided. Their argument that all motion is like that 
of the fish in water, which is motion of matter in 
matter, is also not correct. A fish swimming in the 
water moves onward only because the particles of 
water are separated where the void spaces, which are 
not water, are between them ; the fish has the power 
to separate the particles of water and to pass between 
them in the empty spaces. But were those particles 
of water so closely joined together that there is not 
any void space in the water, the fish would not be 
able to move in the water. Thus we are forced to 
this conclusion : that there must be empty spaces 
between matter in the universe, but that empty spaces, 
iust as they cannot be matter, cannot also be nihility 
and that both those theories are not true. 

Still, the question whether atoms exist is of too 
great importance to all philosophers, idealists as well 
as realists, to be passed over in silence here. The 
solution of this problem is at the foundation of all 
our speculative and practical sciences. But not one 
of the thinkers of ancient and modern times has as 
yet furnished a true and positive answer to this ques- 
tion. Moreover, we have to inquire about this prin- 
ciple itself. What is matter itself, the principle of 
creation ? What is the origin of the forces working 



MATTER AND FORCE bl 

in or on matter? What is the soul of matter or 
the intelligence that exist in matter ? And what is 
the tie and relation between matter and intelligence? 
I, therefore, am compelled to say that, as I am come 
to teach mankind the way of the truth, that they may 
attain the highest knowledge, that all meu may under- 
stand the eternal truth fully and clearly, it is my 
duty, first of all, to do away with all the errors which 
were born in the lap of the early and the latest phi- 
losophers and scientists, together with the many errors 
which were generated, without their knowledge and 
carefulness, by the dominating religions, propagated 
among men by the various religionists ; for the one 
and the other alike, the philosophical and scientific, 
as well as the religious errors, are stumbling-blocks 
on the road of mankind, preventing them from under- 
standing the eternal truth clearly. I begin, therefore, 
now, from the teachings of the first of the Greek 
thinkers, from the great philosopher, Thales of 
Miletus, in Ionia, who has established the Ionian 
school of philosophy, and who was the first 
one to put up matter as the principle of the 
universe, as an ever-abiding principle of absolute 
existence. From his teachings, moreover, were gen- 
erated and invented and built up and established all 
the many and various systems of philosophy and 
natural sciences, the old and the new ones, since his 



82 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

days down to our times, for the last two thousand and 
five hundred years. And again, as we have not a 
single system by which all the questions that may 
be asked could be answered, I, therefore, must cite in 
brief many of all the systems of the most philosophers 
and the greatest scientists, whose names are known 
since that time up to the present ; from that of Thales 
till those of Professors Helmholtz, Thompson and 
Maxwell, and to prove that each of them was built 
upon the ruins of the one that preceded it, and on the 
foundation which has been laid by Thales : This 
foundation, however, was false, for in its turn it was 
based on the errors of the idolatry of those times. 

Thales has advanced the theory t.lat man has no 
right to consider the things that exist in actuality as 
things of absolute existence ; but only the thing 
from which all things issue forth and to which they 
all return, is of real absolute existence, and this thiug 
is the principle of the universe entire. When he saw 
that the seed of every existing thing was wet, that 
food is wet, also that worms developed from humidity, 
and humidity in general was the producer and sus- 
tainer of everything, he put up the thesis that water 
was the principle of everything that exists in the 
universe. Water is the principle and it is of absolute 
existence ; and all the things that are in the universe 
come from it and return to it. 



MATTER AND FORCE 83 

The words of the philosopher Thales were not 
written down by himself in a book. All his utterances 
and opinions were handed down by tradition through 
the disciples of his school. The philosophers that 
followed him could not, therefore, find out his theo- 
logical views and what he thought of the relation 
between the various divinities or between the souls or 
spirits and the primary principle of creation, — the 
water. But if we consider well the views of the 
ancient idolators and compare them with his words 
which we know, and with the words of the philoso- 
phers that followed him, we can well understand his 
views and the causes by which his opinions were 
formed. We may thus arrive at a thorough under- 
standing of the causes from which have originated all 
the views of the philosophers from the earliest genera- 
tions to those of our time. This will lead us to the 
eternal truth by a straight and plain road on which 
there are no stumbling blocks or impediments and no 
misleading errors. 

In my MS. "Divinity and the Cosmos," I have 
proved that the first lawgivers of the ancient times 
were great thinkers. Many of them have conceived 
the eternal truth, the general existence of the universe 
entire. By their wisdom and understanding they 
have attained the highest degree of knowledge and 
reached the final end of Divine Wisdom. But they 



84 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

were in the liabit of concealing their knowledge of 
nature from their fellow-men, who were in a very low 
degree of intellectual development at that time. They, 
•moreover, lacked much technical knowledge, not 
because they had not the abilities for it, but because 
the necessity did not exist to engage in it. They 
accordingly did not possess the knowledge of printing 
as we have it at present. This is the reason why 
many opinions were not written down but transmitted 
orally. 

One of the first great lawgivers was he who was 
brought to the East Indies where the highest and 
mysterious essence was designated by the name of 
Braham. This is the invisible and uncreated essence 
who is the cause of His Own Existence and who has 
no likeness and no similitude. They declare Him 
holy and exalt Him by very lofty and awful designa- 
tions. Among these designations are the following : 
" Braham is the image of wisdom, but not the total 
sum of individual knowledge, for He is indivisible, 
free and beyond all activity, good or evil. He is the 
sight of vision, and therefore no eye can see Him. 
He is the hearing of hearing, and therefore no ear 
can hear Him. He is the thought of thinking, and 
no thought can conceive Him, for the knowledge of 
knowledge cannot be known to every knowledge. As 
the light of the lamp is visible by itself and requires 



MATTER AND FORCE 85 

no other light to make it visible, so is Braham the 
light itself. He is the abyss of wisdom ; by his word 
the earth, the heavens, the sun and the moon, and 
day and night exist in perpetual motion. All the 
elements as well as man are an image of Him ; He 
is the place of the universe, as the sea is the place of 
all rivers. He is the vision of all images, the ear of 
all sounds, the heart of all senses, the word of all 
wisdom. He is the tie which binds together all that 
exist as a thread of pearls. He is the Lord. He is 
at the core of all bodies, the great and the small, and 
always the same, like gold which never changes in 
substance no matter in what form it is cast. To the 
fly and to the elephant alike he gives the motion of 
life ; even the inanimate rocks are His Image. All 
that He produces He destroys, therefore is He called 
the great Ivion." (Vgl. J. Gorres: " Mythengeschichte 
der asiatischen Welt, nach Oupnekhad tchehandek.") 
As I understand by Biblical, Talmudical and old his- 
torical facts, the holy name " Braham " is nothing 
else but the name of the patriarch Abraham, omit- 
ting the first letter, "A." The Hindoos cslV- ' 
god with the name of their father. It i= - 
unto the sons of the concubine= 
Abraham gave ^'tfls, and > 
his son, while he yet live*. 
country " (Genesis xxv. 6). 



86 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Talmud, with the name Rabbi Jeremiah, said that the 
gifts which Abraham gave them were a mysterious 
name* (Trac. Sanhedrin, the last part). Pondering 
well and without bias upon the systems of ancient 
and modern times, we must admit that these designa- 
tions of the ancient Hindoos contain pure and sublime 
thoughts — purer and loftier by far than the thoughts 
of all the philosophers of latter times and the ideas of 
the natural scientists of our own days. Although I 
do not agree with many expressions of their designa- 
tions, yet, it may be, the mistakes were brought in 
by the false translations or even by the traditions. 
Many of these designations contain the ruination of 
the philosophical systems of Descartes, Spinoza, 
Emanuel Kant and his followers, and also the errors 
of the latest natural scientists. The designation of 
" the image of Wisdom, but not the total sum of indi- 
vidual knowledge," destroys the system of Spinoza 



* The expression used by Rabbi Jeremiah is nXDD TW — 

"name of tmcleanliness ;" but elsewhere in the Book of Genesis, 

God is represented as saying: "For 1 know him that he will 

command his sons and his family after him to keep the way of 

Jehovah ;" hence, Abraham could not have given his sons a "name 

of uncleanliness," Indeed, such ideas did not exist in his times, 

but were first promulgated by Zoroaster. R. Jeremiah knew, 

f^-^ through tradition, that "gifts" meant ideas upon which Brah- 

4^ '^ ^manism was based, but, not concurring with these ideas, stigma- 

V a4? ^tized them as "name of uncleanliness," while, in fact, they 

jCy ^ represented the true doctrine imparted by Abraham, or Braham. 

a -^ -^^^ 

•=^ ^ 
V >^ 



MATTER AND FORCE 87 

and the entire system of Pantheism. The assigned 
reason for this designation is " because He is indivisi- 
ble." From this we infer that all compound objects are 
divisible into parts, in actuality as well as mentally, be- 
cause they are compounds. This destroys the words of 
Kant, the doubter, who said, " The totality is nothing 
but the collection of single parts," as he does not know 
clearly the diJBference between the indivisible essence 
and the divisible compound objects. By the designa- 
tion, " By His words the earth, the heavens, the sun, 
the moon and day and night exist in perpetual 
motion," the systems of Isaac Newton and his follow- 
ers fall to the ground, for they do not know that there 
is no force working in matter besides motion, and that 
motion itself is not a force working in matter by 
itself, but it is a force that is actuated in matter by 
another force which exists outside of it, as I will 
prove by arguments in the following pages. Abraham 
himself, as a Hebrew, called the Holy Being by the 
name of Jehovah, which means "Absolute Being." 
It is written : " And Abraham planted an acacia in 
Beer-Sheba, and called there on the name of Jehovah 
(the Being of Intellectuality), El (Potentiality, the 
general force), 01am (Actuality, matter and the par- 
ticularized forces), which are included in the name of 
Jehovah, the Lord of the universe. With the same 
name Moses came to the Israelites, explaining to them 



88 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the name of Jehovah by the name of " Ehejeh Asher 
Ehejeh^^^'^ or, "I Am that I Am," which simply 
means, " I am in eternity what I am in every moment 
of infinite time " — for there is no change in Him ; " I 
am in the world what I am in myself" — for the exist- 
ence of the whole universe in general and in its 
particularizations is naught but the Intellectual 
Existence of the Essence of Jehovah, which is the 
Absolute Mind. Again, " I am " in eternity in myself 
and in the universe only because " I am," for there 
was no cause previous to Him which brought Him 
into existence and no succeeding cause which made 
the universe emanate from Him into existence. " I 
am" in the universe "what I am" in myself; for 
there is no mental image in Intellectuality which is 
not emanated in actuality through the potentiality. 
" I am " in the universe only according to that " what 
I am " in myself; for there is nothing in the universe 
in actuality which is not ruled and controlled by the 
Laws of Intellectuality. " I am " in the universe 
only that " what I am " in myself; it means that the 
intellectual Universe is the idea, or the intellectual 
image, of the physical world. And " I am " in myself 
even after " I am " in the universe ; for He does not 
manifest Himself in the single phenomena of actual 
existence, holding the universe in Bis Mathematical 
Bond. About the same lofty ideas are to be found in 



MATTER AND FORCE 89 

the writings of the Prophets, and in some places with 
more clearness. But, at the same time, there was 
brought into these writings, on account of the numer- 
ous writers and in the course of tradition, many ideas 
which do not agree with common-sense, especially 
through false translations. 

In the course of time, their views were trans- 
formed into idolatrous notions by men who did not 
or would not understand them, or who kept their fel- 
low-men in darkness and led them astray in order to 
subject them to servitude. They, therefore, put forth 
strange and morbid notions among men that they 
should believe that the forces of nature, in their 
objective appearances, were divinities working in the 
universe by their own free-will, and that these divini- 
ties were the issue of the sublime but mysterious 
essence, born through strange and peculiar emanations. 
Through this they strayed away from the truthful 
principles which had been established by the primi- 
tive teachers. By these strange notions they invented 
various systems of idolatry in every land and in every 
age. About the same luck afterwards befell the 
teachings of Moses and the Prophets. After the days 
of Hillel the Old, since about two thousand years, 
many of the Talmudists have brought into the teach- 
ing of Moses and the Prophets the notions of the 
idolators of every age, from which three religions — 



go THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism — have 
developed in the name of the Biblical God, while in 
reality they erred away, very far, from the truth which 
is found in the words of Moses himself and in those 
of the Prophets. All these are explained in my MS., 
" Divinity and the Cosmos." 

But if we consider well the words of their sayings 
which have reached us, we can arrive at the founda- 
tion of their wisdom ; by this we can see the errors 
of the philosophers that followed them and also the 
error of the Ionian Thales, the first Greek philosopher, 
upon which all subsequent philosophical systems 
were built. Thales put up the proposition : " There 
is one primary element in the universe, and that is 
water ; everything that exists in the universe comes 
from water and to water it returns." This proposi- 
tion was derived from a posteriori reasoning and by 
induction. He saw and perceived by his senses that 
everything that was accessible to sensual perception 
came from humidity and dissolved into humidity ; 
and as water was the origin of humidity he came to 
the conclusion that water was the primary principle 
of creation. But if Thales had not been impressed 
with the notions of the idolators, if he had not gone 
to inquire into the nature of things that existed in 
actuality before him by the perception of the senses 
before he cleared his mind of the perverted notions 



MATTER AND FORCE 9I 

of the foolish peoples which were mixed up with the 
pure thoughts of their religious legislators, — he would 
not put up this proposition on a posteriori principles 
and by inductive reasoning. For the judgment by 
the perception of the senses could never result in a 
proposition like this that there is one primary element 
in the universe. The senses perceive only the out- 
ward of every compound object, and every compound 
object differs in quantity and in quality from the other 
compound object which belongs to a different species. 
If we should mate many compound objects of one 
species before us we could never get out of them an 
issue of another kind which might differ from them 
in quantity and in quality. If we should gather up 
all the water of the seas and the rivers, purified of 
the admixture of strange elements, and mix them and 
blend them mechanically and chemically, we would 
not be able to compose of them one little fish or 
worm, or a blade of grass or even a little stone. The 
fishes and the worms and the vegetables and the 
stones which we find in the water are not generated 
by a chemical combination of the water itself, but by 
a combination of other elements that are not from the 
water together with those of the water itself. The 
combination of two elements that are different from 
each other, only, produces a third thing that is unlike 
either of them — it difiers from them in quantity by 



92 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

its porosity, and in quality by the forces that are 
active in it. Thus, from what we perceive with our 
senses we can never arrive at the proposition that 
there is only one primary element in the universe 
which originates all the compound objects which vary 
and differ from each other. But Thales was a great 
thinker. In the few words we have from him we can 
find the systems of Spinoza and of all the philosophers 
who preceded and followed him. Indeed, Spinoza's 
system which is the centre of all philosophical sys- 
tems, precedent and succeeding, is nothing but a 
commentary on the words of Thales that, " There is 
but one primary element in the universe, and this is 
water ; all that exists in the universe comes from 
water and returns unto water." This is the very 
spirit of the philosophical system of Spinoza who said 
that, "There is one substance in the universe which 
contains all in itself and in which all contained is 
one." The difference between the two is that Thales 
asserted that water is the substance in which all is 
contained and all contained is one, while Spinoza 
who knew that water is not the primary element of 
the universe asserted that there is one substance in 
the universe, from which our intellect and matter are 
modified ; a substance which we do not know what 
or who it is, as Spinoza himself knew it not, even 
after his assertion that all that the human mind con- 



MATTER AND FORCE 93 

ceives is either an accident or an attribute ' of that 
Substance. But as we know clearly that water is 
not the primary element of all that exists, as Thales 
opined, because water itself is composed from more 
primary elements, so do we also know that there is 
positively not one abstracted and previous Substance, 
that our intellect is only a modification of Him^ as 
Spinoza thought, because our pure intellect, through 
which we may have a conception of such a Substance, 
must positively be previous to all ; for, if not, we 
coufd have no means to think of such a Substance at 
all. Our intellect, therefore, must be Divinity itself^ 
through which we may conceive it. But we know 
clearly that the philosophical spirit which permeates 
the whole system of Spinoza is the same that is con- 
tained in the few words of Thales. Therefore, if we 
know clearly that Thales was the greatest philosopher 
among men, we know also that this greatest of philo- 
sophers with his deep research would not make the 
assertion that there is one primary element in the 
universe by a judgment which is based on the percep- 
tion of the senses while sensual perception itself is 
opposed to his assertion. We know also that Thales 
has not based his judgment on a priori principles and 
did not reason by deduction. For every judgment 
from ^/rzt'rz principles by deduction starts from the 
cause that is known first and proceeds to the later ; it 



94 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

begins with the generality and judges about the par- 
ticulars. We thus form our opinion on the thing that 
is precedent in time which is the cause of that which 
succeeds it, and from the generality which is the cause 
of the particulars that issue forth from it, and we 
understand by this that we form an opinion about the 
cause that is prior in time and brings forth its suc- 
cessors, and about the generality which produces its 
particulars. But Thales did not form an opinion of 
a cause that was in the substance of water which he 
said is the first and which should be the cause of 
the things that come afterward into existence in the 
universe ; nor did he form an opinion on the substance 
of water itself which according to his view is the 
general thing, the primary element of all the partic- 
ularizations of the universe, for there is no cause in 
the water by which it is actuated to reveal itself in 
various and differing particulars in the universe. 
Thales accordingly did not know any cause existing 
in the water which might bring about the revelation 
of the beings that come from and return unto the 
water. Thus also Aristotle said, who lived about two 
hundred years after him, that Thales had not con- 
ceived of the cause that is active in the water when 
he asserted that water is the primary element of 
creation. We have, therefore, no other way of explain- 
ing the words of Thales and the powerful philosophi- 



MATTER AND FORCE 95 

cal spirit that is contained in these words but assum- 
ing that the foundation of his teachings was laid on 
the basis of the idolatrous beliefs of his time. And 
this is indeed the right way as we shall see when we 
examine his words and the words of the disciples of 
his school and the words of the many thinkers who 
followed him and wrote down their teachings in 
books. 

I have mentioned before that the foundation of 
the idolatry of the ancients and of all their mytholo- 
gical legends was laid by the sublime and lofty 
thoughts of their first religious teachers. These 
teachers by their wisdom and knowledge assumed 
that there is a sublime but mysterious essence, per- 
fectly absolute, in whose existence the universe in 
general and in its particularizations exists. They 
were wise and understood well that the particularized 
being of every particular thing existing is not abso- 
lute, that it is not an existence by itself. They knew 
by this that the existence of any particularized thing 
is the existence of a particularized thing that preceded 
it and also the existence of the particularized thing 
that will follow it ; and that this is the one general 
and absolute existence of the universe entire in the 
one essence of eternal absolute existence. But they 
knew not or would not explain to mankind the order 
of creation developing from the absolute general exist- 



g6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

ence into the non-absolute particularized existence- 
The priests, therefore, put forth strange and morbid 
notions among men that they should believe that the 
forces of nature were divinities working in the uni- 
verse by their own free will, and that these divinities 
were the issue of the sublime but mysterious essence, 
born through strange and peculiar emanations. 
Through this they erred away from the truthful prin- 
ciples which had been established by the primitive 
teachers ; by these strange notions they invented 
various systems in every land and in every age. 

When Thales came and learned all these systems 
and found that they were all irrelevant to the exist- 
ence of actuality, that he could not explain through 
them the non-absolute existence of matter that was 
before him, — how it could emanate through the divin- 
ities from one essence— he brought them into the 
existence of actuality by the system of Pantheism 
which he invented by his wonderful research. He 
knew that the existence in the universe is one 
general and absolute existence, and that this is the 
one principle, or the one essence that had been known 
to the ancient teachers ; and he understood well that 
this principle is the true principle of nature. When 
he saw that all the forces of nature are working in 
matter ; that these forces which the idolators regarded 
as divinities are intertwined in the matter which is 



MATTER AND FORCE 97 

actuated by them ; and when he considered the views 
or sayings of the ancient Hindoo priests, that water 
was the beginning of creation, the general activity of 
all that existed in the universe, as Aristotle testified 
of him, saying that, " the opinion of Thales, who 
asserted that water is the primary element of all 
creation, is a very ancient opinion, coming from the 
Hindoo priests, who lived many ages before him, who 
said that the sea, Okeanos^ and his wife, Thetis^ were 
the revelation and the creation of the universe entire " 
— he went by those views to judge about the things 
that exist and are in actuality perceptible to the 
senses ; and by his deep research he examined the 
compound objects which change one into the other 
and one after the other in one eternal bond, which 
knows no destruction and no annihilation for all 
eternity. From this he judged also on a posteriori 
assumption by induction about the a priori principles 
which he had adopted before. Thus, he arrived at the 
conclusion that the one essence of which he knew 
before is water, and that "all that exists in the uni- 
verse comes from water and returns to water. " Accord- 
ing to his views, water is the only thing that exists in 
the universe, and the water reveals itself in particu- 
lars and by various and differing accidents which 
come one from the other and one after the other in 
the order of creation, by the one general activity in 



98 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the water, which is the perpetual motion that is going 
on in it. All the various and different images of the 
various and different compound objects in the uni- 
verse, in the concrete substances, the vegetables, the 
animals and in man, with their various and differing 
forces which are the divinities or the souls that work 
in them, also the intelligence of man, are naught but 
the one essence — water. They all come from water, 
and to water they return ; for water is the primary 
element, the divinities, the universe in general and 
in its particularizations. From the few words of 
Thales, therefore, we see clearly that he was the first 
founder of the system of Materialism, in that he 
believed that matter is of absolute existence ; and 
that he was the founder of the system of Pantheism, 
in that he believed that the divinities or the souls of 
the universe (which, according to his views, were the 
forces of nature working in the universe) are one in 
matter. 

We see the same in the words of Anaximander, 
who comments upon the saying of his teacher and 
friend, Thales : " The one primary principle {dpxv) 
is eternal, endless, unlimited and undefinable." He 
says : " Everything comes from it and everything 
returns to it, according to the order of creation and 
time." Anaximander thus gives us a deeper insight 
into the teaching of his master. He shows us that 



MATTER AND FORCE 99 

the primary principle of creation is properly not the 
water we perceive in quantity and quality ; for there 
is no particular quantity or quality in the one princi- 
ple which is "unlimited and undefinable." But he 
recognizes the jjrimary principle in the water that is 
not cognizable to the senses before it assumes its 
quantity and its quality. There is, according to this, 
one abstract element of absolute existence, " eternal, 
endless, limitless and undefinable," which is the one 
primary principle of creation, the divinity or the soul 
of the universe itself, in whose indissoluble potential 
existence all compound objects exist, and which in 
its first manifestation reveals itself to our perception 
as water. His disciple Anaximenes opined that "the 
one primary principle is air," which, when it becomes 
rarefied and extended, appears as fire, and when it 
becomes condensed, appears as water, earth or stones ; 
all that is came through this into existence. These 
first three philosophers of Greece, the founders of the 
Ionian school, inquired after the primary general 
principle of the universe entire, which they knew 
from the traditions of the primary idolatrous systems. 
They discovered that principle in a material element 
which reveals itself to human perception, and they 
assumed that this material element is of absolute 
existence, that it is the one general essence and the 
one fundamental principle of the universe entire. 



lOO THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

But they differed in their views about the first reve- 
lation of this essence— how it issued forth from its 
absolute general state into non-absolute particularized 
existence. Each of these three philosophers pro- 
gressed one step further. Thales assumed that water, 
as we perceive it, is the principal element ; his dis- 
ciple, Anaximander, assumed that water in its abstract 
state in potentiality is the element; and Anaximander 
assumes that air, which is previous to water in crea- 
tion, is the primary principle. But all three, with 
the disciples and friends of their school, settled upon 
the systems of Materialism and Pantheism, which are 
identical in their origin, as the true systems. 

Now that we know clearly the assumption of 
these first three Greek philosophers, we know clearly, 
also, the methods of their inquiries, and we know 
clearly, also, that the causes which affected them to 
make their assumptions were the errors which had 
been impressed upon their minds by the views of the 
ancient idolators. Those idolaters who believed in 
the views of their religious teachers, that there is one 
absolute essence in existence in whose being the whole 
universe existed, and that the particularized being of 
every particularized object is not absolute and not a 
self-standing internal existence— but who knew not 
the gradation of creation from the general absolute 
existence to the particularized non-absolute existence— 



MATTER AND FORCE lOI 

assumed that matter in which the compound objects 
are revealed to us is created and destroyed as it is 
changing and varying by the will of the divinities 
which are the offsprings of the one absolute essence, 
and which are the forces working in matter by their 
own free-will. The one general essence, according 
to their belief, brought forth a great, many divinities 
which were all the offspring of Elohim (the general 
power of creation), and equal in degree, but which 
afterward varied in their actions and became opposed 
to each other, and worked in the universe according 
to their free will. Through this the idolators explained 
to themselves the nature of the universe, with all the 
phenomena they perceived, the good and evil, light 
and darkness, and every variation and change. Such 
are the teachings of Zoroaster, and such were the 
teachings of the religious masters that preceded 
him and from whom he took his ideas. And when 
the philosopher Thales and his disciples came, hav- 
ing all these idolatrous teachings in their heads, 
and took notice of the matter that existed before 
them and the force which worked in it, that the force 
did not change and vary by its free-will, but by com- 
pulsion, and the matter which is changed and varied, 
constituted the universe which was not created and 
not perishable — they formed the assumption that the 
one absolute essence which is divinity, and all the 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



offspring of divinity which are the forces working in 
matter as well as matter itself, were all one in the 
universe ; that the universe entire is divinity, the one 
primary principle in the universe itself, and this prin- 
ciple itself reveals itself and becomes known to us by 
its own natural compulsion, without any precedent 
or succeeding cause, in all the images and formations 
in the endless extent of the universe, in the matter of 
various and different compound objects, which came 
from it and returned to it in all eternity. 

But instead of this, the wise men of the Ionian 
school should have penetrated the mystery of the one 
absolute essence itself, to understand its quiddity and 
identity, to distinguish between their own assump- 
tions and that which had come to them by tradition, 
and to understand that the one absolute essence, as 
such, could not become a multiple and non-absolute. 
Instead of this, to understand that, if the universe is 
one absolute essence, it must maintain its own abso- 
lute existence for all eternity, and no change can ever 
occur in it. And if matter appears to us in various 
and differing compound objects which change and 
vary every second, they should know that matter is 
not the essence of the universe itself and not the one 
absolute essence. If these wise men of Greece assumed 
that there is one essence in the universe, as Anaxi- 
mander, one of the three, tells us, that this essence 



MATTER AND FORCE I03 

is endless, limitless, eternal and undefinable — the 
one "eternal," absolute existence which is seen at 
one second must be accordingly the very eternal, 
"absolute " existence which it has at all eternity, at 
every moment without ceasing, without beginning 
and without end ; that such an essence is not subject 
to the conception of time ; that there is not an instance 
of time in all eternity m which there is any change 
in it — they should have assumed then, that matter 
which changes and varies in time and place is not the 
one absolute essence which has no end and no limit 
and is " undefinable". When these wise men of Greece 
saw that the changeable and variable matter before 
them is found in a universe, which was not created 
and not pe^^ishable^ and that the force working in 
matter is active by compulsion, — and by this they saw 
the error of the idolators who believed that the divini- 
ties working in it, or iu the universe, by their fi'-ee 
ze/z7/,— they should have known that the idolatrous 
errors had come to them, because they had formed 
their judgments by what their senses had perceived 
in the matter of the objects that were before them 
before they knew what the one absolute essence is, 
which their primitive teachers had taught them. 
They believed in the words of their primitive teachers 
that there is one absolute essence in existence, which 
caused the existence of all this, and they did not 



104 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

know what the essence itself is ; but they saw that 
matter is changeable and variable, and that it could 
not be the existence of the absolute essence itself; 
they, therefore, formed the conclusion that matter is 
in the power of divinities or the creation of divinities, 
which worked at their own free will, and that those 
divinities were the existence of the absolute essence 
itself, that they were identical in degree and differed 
only by their subsequent activity. Thus, these wise 
men of Greece who have discovered the errors of the 
idolators who believed that matter was created and 
perishable and that force is working in it by its free 
will — should have known also the causes which had 
generated these errors in their minds, namely, the 
false inferences they had made from the perception 
of their senses before they knew what the one essence 
is. And these Greek thinkers should have cleared 
their minds of all the thoughts and inferences of the 
idolators, which had been conceived through the per- 
ception of the senses before a clear conception had 
been formed of what the one absolute essence is. 
When the Ionian philosophers made the assertion that 
there is one primary element, eternal, endless, limit- 
less and undefinable in the universe, they should have 
known themselves by intellectual wisdom and not by 
sensual perception^ what they asserted ; that this asser- 
tion is the assertion of the unity of the universe and 



MATTER AND FORCE I05 

? 

not an assertion of the perception of the senses. By 
the perception of the senses man recognizes the many 
things that exist in the universe in endless numbers^ 
variety and differentiation^ and not the unity of the 
universe. The assertion of the jinity of the universe 
is accordingly only of mental cogitation. They 
should have known, then, that the tcniversal uiiity^ as 
it is naught but in the mental cogitation, the mental 
cogitation itself is, therefore, the universal unity; that 
the one eternal essence is nothing but the Mind itself 
which changes not in all eternity. Since the Mind is 
above all sensual perception because it comprehends in 
one conception all the various and differing particular- 
ized objects and recognizes through it the oneness of 
the universe — the oneness of the universe is, there- 
fore, its quiddity and being. The universal unity in 
which all particularized objects of existence are bound 
together in an eternal union, the one internal being 
of the universe that is not created and not perishable^ 
is nothing but the Absolute Mind itself. The oneness 
of the universe is not in the force that acts and not in 
the matter that is actuated and that changes and 
alters every moment ; but it is in the Wisdom of the 
Absolute Mind itself, which is the very existence of 
the universe entire, and which is the wisdom of the 
intellectual Laws of all the things that exist in actu- 
ality according to the Laws of the Mind. The one- 



Io6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

ness of the universe, as the oneness of the universe^ 
which is not created and not perishable, is an absolute 
unity. It is not active and not actuated, it does not 
reveal itself in various particularizations and accidents. 
It is, therefore, nothing else than the Wisdom of the 
Mind itself which alters not and changes not in all 
eternity. Thus, this one eternal wisdom of the Abso- 
lute Mind is the wisdom of the human mind ; and by 
this wisdom itself the man understands within himself 
its quiddity and being, that it is the unity of the 
universe. 

Now, the Ionian philosophers who assumed the 
unity of the universe, which they designated as the 
primary principle, if they know withiii themselves 
what they assumed, they know also that their assump- 
tion is the wisdom of the Mind, and that the wisdom 
of the Mind is the unity of the universe. They might 
then know clearly the absolute emanation of the uni- 
verse in general — in its potential existence and of the 
universe in particularization, in its existence in actu- 
ality. They might know that the universe in general 
is not created and not perishable, in that it is an 
eternal Absolute Bmanation of the general existence 
of the Absolute Mind, and they might know that the 
particularized objects in it change and alter, in that 
the one Absolute Emanation is the one general activ- 
ity in the essence of the universe, which issues forth 



MATTER AND FORCE IO7 

its potentialexistence into its particularized existence 
in actuality, according to the lyaws of the Mind, as 
they are known one in the other in the general Mind. 
But these Ionian philosophers did not know them- 
selves what they asserted ; they believed, like all the 
idolators, in the words of their predecessors, which 
they had received by tradition, that there is one 
essence in the universe. They received, like the 
others, this wisdom in faith. But when they per- 
ceived the things that were before them in various 
and dififerent particularizations in which there is no 
universal oneness, they began searching for the pri- 
mary principle, for the unity of the universe in the 
things that their senses perceived, like the idolators 
who had invented for themselves as many divinities 
as they perceived with their senses forces at work. 
The difference, however, between the Ionian philoso- 
phers and the idolators was this : The idolators, when 
they perceived a natural phenomenon, they made a. 
divinity of it, and when they perceived another natural 
phenomenon, they made of it another divinity. Thus 
they believed that the divinities were various in their 
workings but equal in degree, and that they were all 
the offspring of the general force which acted by its 
own free-will, of the one essence in which they 
believed by tradition. But the Ionian philosophers,, 
who were great thinkers, scrutinized deeply every- 



Io8 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES . 

thing before they pronounced an opinion on it, and, 
studying carefully the compound objects before them, 
recognized the errors of the idolators, but they knew 
not where these errors had sprung from. And search- 
ing deeply into the phenomena they perceived with 
their senses, and judging by induction from the pos- 
terior to the anterior and from the particular to the 
general, contrived for themselves the system of Pan- 
theism and Materialism, believing that matter itself 
is the principal Divinity, the primary principle 
of the universe in its totality and its partictilariz- 
ation. 

This error of the Ionian philosophers to recognize 
the mistakes of men without knowing their causes? 
and to study and scrutinize the things before them as 
they were, and to form assumptions by the perception 
of the senses before they knew their causes, was the 
same mistake which the sages and philosophers that 
followed them made and the same error in which the 
thinkers of the present time indulge. This error was 
originated in the notions of the ancient idolators, 
and is adhered to by the many and various religion- 
ists that followed them and that exist in the present 
time, for all religions were based upon the views of 
the ancient idolators. They vary and differ only in 
their external forms. And these errors veiled the 
mental skies, so that the I,ight of Wisdom, the pure 



MATTER AND FORCE lOQ 

and exalted Mind, could not be seen. Let me proceed 
with my explanations : 

The assumption of the Ionian philosophers that 
matter is the one primary principle of the universe, 
from which everything in the universe came and to 
which they all returned, was displeasing in the 
sight of Pythagoras, who lived about one hundred 
years after Thales. He understood that the philoso- 
phers of the Ionian school had made a mistake, in 
that they had yielded all the good of the universe to 
matter. But he knew not how their error had origi- 
nated. Their errors, theretore, became his errors. 
Pythagoras was the first of thinkers who penetrated 
deeply into the science of Arithmetic, Mathematics 
and Geometr}^, and he perceived by his senses that 
the quantity of everything existing in actuality is 
subject to the laws of these sciences, and that all the 
phenomena in the universe were arranged in wise 
order. He, therefore, exalted mathematics and geom- 
etry, which he loved passionately, as the divinity 
which created the world ; the Number is to him 
the one essence or the primary principle of the uni- 
verse. The revelation and creation of everything in 
the universe, he taught, is the Number, and Nature 
in all her working, from the particularized being of 
man up to the general laws ol the universe, is naught 
but mathematics and geometry. All the things that 



no THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

exist in the universe are the images and the revela- 
tion of Numbers, and the universe in general is 
Number itself. The Number begins with one and 
runs up to ten ; these are the primary numbers. All 
the endless and limitless numbers are contained in 
these. Thus says also the Cabbalist Moses Kordioro : 
" The number One stands by itself and is the begin- 
ning of every number; every number is in it in potency, 
and it is in every number in actuality. One, with 
reference to the Creator — blessed be He ! — is in this 
wise applied ; the blessed Creator is in all things in 
actuality, and everything is in Him in potency, and 
He is the beginning and the cause of everything." 
(Or Ne'erabh.) This pantheistic principle of the 
Cabbalah is the system of Pythagoras. The number 
One is in all numbers ; it is the essence of every 
number, and still it stands by itself. Since it is the 
basis of all numbers — for they all begin with One 
and the One appears in them all — all numbers are in 
it in potency and it reveals itself in all numbers. All 
numbers come from one and are reduced to one, for 
One is the centre of All. Ten large and voluminous 
bodies (the planets) revolve around the sun ; they are 
the primary numbers of the One ; likewise are the 
te7i Sephiroth of the Cabbalists, All the compound 
objects contained in these planets (of which the earth 
is one) are the numbers contained in the ten prima- 



MATTER AND FORCE III 

ries, and all the images of the quantities of these 
objects, as the image of the triangle or the square, 
are geometrical forms contained in the number one. 
With the quantities of the objects, the same is the 
case as with the qualities. The soul of man is the 
centre — it is the number one ; justice is the number 
two ; righteousness is number three, etc. As numbers 
are distinguishable in straights, such as two, four, 
six, etc., and in odds, as five, seven, etc., and all these 
are included in the one which is their centre, so the 
compound objects of the universe may be distinguish- 
able and varying in quantity and in quality. 

All the writers on the history of philosophy who 
rely merely on the historical records ol the men they 
trust, without examining the words of the philoso- 
phers themselves, by the laws of reason, to know the 
origin of their views, were at a loss to fathom Pythag- 
oras's teachings by these strange propositions. They 
knew not whether he regarded the Number as matter, 
whether Number itself was the quiddity of matter, or 
whether it was the essence which existed by itself 
and brought into existence the matter of all the 
objects in creation. They quote the words of Aristotle 
that he also did not know this clearly. The reason 
of this is that neither of them knew the causes of 
Pythagoras's errors, as they knew not the causes of 
the errors of all philosophers or of their owa errors. 



112 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

In truth, however, the cause of Pythagoras's error was 
the identical cause which originated the errors of the 
earlier Ionian philosophers and which originated the 
errors of all the succeeding philosophers up to this 
day. This principal cause of error is the same as led 
astray the primitive idolators. 

We know already the cause of the errors of the 
Ionian philosophers who preceded Pythagoras, as it 
has been here demonstrated before. They believed 
in one essence existing in the universe, but did not 
know it by the wisdom of the mind ; and they sought 
for it in the matter of the things they perceived with 
their senses, like the idolators. They were, however, 
men of great intellectual parts, and penetrated deeply 
by logical speculation into the quality of the existing 
things. And they made their assumption by a poste- 
riori reasoning from the particular to the general, 
that the quality of things in general, when denuded 
of all particularization, is the one essence which 
creates and maintains all these things ; that this is 
^he one primary principle. That the abstract quality 
of things is the creator of things. Pythagoras, on the 
other hand, was a great mathematician, and also 
believed in one essence without knowing it by intel- 
lectual cogitation, and likewise searched for it in the 
matter of existing things. But by his mathematical 
skill he directed his inquiries into the quantity of 



MATTER AND FORCE 113 

things. And as he also started from a posteriori 
assumptions, and reasoning from the particular about 
the general, he concluded that the quantity of things 
in general, denuded of particularization, is the essence 
which creates and sustains all this — the one primary 
principle. That the abstract quantity of things is the 
creator of things. I will explain this more clearly. 
All the particularized objects of the universe vary and 
differ in their quantities and qualities if we regard them 
singly ; but they are all of one quantity and quality 
which belongs to them all. Let us take men as an 
illustration. If we observe them singly, according to 
their peculiarities, we find them varying and diiSfering 
one from the other in size, construction and abilities 
(quantity and quality) ; but if we regard them as a 
species, as a whole, we find them all alike in their 
general quantity and quality. Thus, Thales, as a 
great logician, pondered deeply on the internal nature 
of existing things searching for their intensive quality; 
and he found that the intensive quality of all partic- 
ularizations of the universe is humidity, whose origin 
lies in water. He, therefore, concluded that this 
general quality^ when regarded by itself, denuded of 
particularization, was the one general principle of the 
universe that created and maintained everything. 
The humidity of water is the general force in the 
general matter, which works by its own natural com- 



114 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

pulsion. And as this force acts matter is actuated 
and manifests itself in various manifestations by 
difierent quantities, through which the one general 
quality appears in single and various qualifications. 
The philosopher Pythagoras, on the other hand, who 
was a great mathematician, calculated the numbers 
and quantities of every particularized object. He 
scrutinized their external appearances by the rules of 
Algebra and Geometry and studied their external 
properties. According to his conception he found 
Number to be the 07te general quantity of all partic- 
ularized beings ; and the origin of number he found 
in " Central Fire." Since the universe is 07ie perfect 
bodily organism, and all the various and differing 
members or limbs of that organism, — all their various 
quantities by their appearances, — are constituted 
together according to the perfect order of the mathe- 
matical harmony, Number must be the principle of 
the universe and in it must be contained all the beings 
with their quantities, forms and construction ; — it is 
the one general quantity^ and in it they all exist. 
And since its origin is in the Central Fire, according 
to his views, so that the number is in constant action 
for all eternity, and through this the Central Fire 
manifests itself in the existing things in various quali- 
ties, they, therefore, appear to us also in various 
quantities, in their singularities, one from the other 



MATTER AND FORCE II5 

and one after the other in the order of creation accord- 
ing to the laws of Arithmetic and Mathematics. We 
thus know clearly that the views of Thales and the 
Ionian school of philosophy as well as the views of 
Pythagoras are based on the system of Pantheism and 
Materialism and were generated by the one and the 
same error, viz.: The belief in one essence and lack 
of knowledge of what that essence is. And they 
sought that essence in the things they perceived ; the 
one in the general quality and the other in the general 
quantity of those things. They reasoned on a poste- 
riori assumptions, judging from the particular about 
the general. And thus together they established 
idolatry in the world. 

When the Eleatic philosophers came and recog- 
nized the errors of the lonians who had deified the 
general quality of matter and the errors of Pythagoras 
who had deified the general quantity of matter, but 
knew not the cause of these errors, they put up a new 
theory on the same errors. They also believed in 
one universal essence which generated all that exists, 
and they also did not know what it is, and could not 
explain the order of creation from the general into 
the particularized existence, either through the gen- 
eral quality or through the general quantity. Diving 
deeply in their research into existence in general as 
devoid of all material quantity and quality and reason- 



Il6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

ing on a posteriori premises from the particular about 
the general, formed the conclusion that Existence^ 
2. ^., Being itself, is the fundamental principle of the 
iiniverse. They found that the general quantity 
denuded of particularization exists, and general quality 
denuded of particularization exists also ;— existence 
contains them both. Hence they concluded that 
Existence itself is the general absolute being of the 
universe entire ; that this being is neither in the 
quality nor in the quantity of existing things, but it 
is the abstract general and absolute being itself, which 
only the mind can conceive. The first philosopher 
of this school was Xenophanes, who began promul- 
gating his teachings in the last years of Pythagoras. 
He established his school in Elea, and, therefore, his 
disciples and followers were called Eleatics. He was 
the first to reproach those who attributed to the divin- 
ity material forms, and sharply criticised Homer and 
Hesiod, who in their poems had depicted the divinities 
in the forms of human beings and had attributed to 
them human foibles. He advanced the proposition 
that the general being of the universe entire is one 
general absolute existence by itself; that it could not 
be conceived in the images of quantity or quality ; 
that it is neither in the quantity nor in the quality of 
the things that exist. "The All Is but one; Exist- 
ence is one, and that is Deity." His disciple Par- 



MATTER AND FORCE II7 

menides explains his teachings more clearly. " Being 
and Thinking is one thing, and this is one Absolute 
Existence in the universe, when denuded of uni- 
versal phenomena from the general and from the 
particularization. The being and thinking, which 
appears in the universe in general and in man in 
particular, is naught. All the thoughts and the lofty 
and sublime conceptions of man are transient, for 
they are in the material body, which alters and 
changes ; for all things in the universe are created 
and lost, limited in time and in space, movable and 
divisible, varying and differing. They thus, neither 
in quality nor quantity, have any relation with the 
abstract being and thinking which is not created or 
lost, which moves not and is not divisible nor limited 
in time and in space, and which is the one absolute 
Divinity." 

Now, considering deeply their views, we see 
plainly that all their views are based upon the same 
errors ; for if these Eleatic philosophers knew them- 
selves what they have asserted — if they understood 
wisely that this assertion, "that being and intellect is 
one and the same thing," is the assertion of the human 
mind itself ; and that since the wisdom of the human 
mind itself is the very wisdom which asserts this asser- 
tion, " that being and intellect is one and the same 
thing," hence this being and intellect, which is the 



Il8 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

substance that brought forth all that exists, could not be 
outside of man; that it could not be absolutely ab- 
stracted from the human mind; that the Absolute 
Being could not be beyond his conception or intelli- 
gence, but it must be inside of his own conception; that 
the human intellect, which makes this assertion, must 
be the Existence itself and the Intellectuality itself for 
the whole universe ; they would know by this that the 
Deity — in which they believed that it is the general 
existence of the universe entire — is not absolutely 
separated from all the existing things, that the human 
intellect should not be able to conceive it. But He 
Himself in His very Being and Intellectuality is in 
the universe itself and in all the things that exist in 
it ; that He is the very life of the universe entire^ not 
because he is the general or particularized quality or 
quantity, but because he is the general intellectual 
image of the whole universe in which are known the 
images of all compound objects that can be in exist- 
ence according to the laws of the Mind, to be cog- 
nizable iu actuality as they are conceived in the 
Mind. They would know then the quiddity of this 
one essence, and they would know to reason a priori 
from the general about the particular, to understand 
the Absolute Emanation of the universe entire from 
its generality into its particularized existence, and 
they would then establish an abiding system for all 



MATTER AND FORCE II9 

eternity. But they did not know themselves what 
they asserted ; they only believed, like all the idola- 
ters and like the philosophers of the Ionian school, 
in one sublime and mysterious essence, and that is 
Divinity. And they sought for it in the matter of 
the existing things of the universe by a posteriori 
reasoning and by induction from the particular to the 
general, divesting the general conceptions of all par- 
ticularized conceptions. They noticed the mistake 
of the lonians, who divested general quality of all 
particular qualifications, and thus made of general 
quality Divinity. They noticed also the mistake 
Pythagoras has made, who denuded general quantity 
of all particularization, and thus made Divinity of 
general quantity. And they went a step further. 
They made of matter an absolute abstraction, divest- 
ing it altogether of quality and quantity, even of 
human intelligence. Thus general existence was left 
them only in thought, perfectly isolated from the uni- 
verse in general or in particularization. This abstract 
thought was to them the general existence, and 
divinity, which brought forth everything in existence 
— a divinity which we know not, which has no rela- 
tion or connection with us, from which we have 
nothing to expect if we serve it. This is sheer idol- 
atry — to believe in a divinity like this, which does 
not exist in the universe. This, however, is the 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



source of many philosophical systems of the Greek 
thinkers of latter times and of the systems of the 
Jewish philosopher Maimonides, the author of the 
" Guide for the Erring." 

When all the compound objects of the wide, end- 
less universe arose in protest against the philosopher 
who had made nihility of them, and in a loud voice 
they shouted at him, " What are we ? Don't we also 
exist in the universe ? " this philosopher conferred a 
mercy on them and invented two elements in the 
universe which are of permanent and living existence : 
fire and earth, or heat and cold. All that exists in 
the universe is a mixture of these two elements. Fire 
gives light and life to all that exists, for fire is the 
nearest to the general absolute existence and all the 
beings in which fire is found in the largest proportions 
are in the highest degree of life, light and intelli- 
gence. Barth causes destruction, annihilation and 
darkness ; for earth is the furthest removed Irom the 
general absolute existence ; all beings in which the 
earth is in largest proportions are in the lowest degree 
of life, light and intelligence. From those two ele- 
ments all the things existing in the universe come, 
from the mineral up to man, from the material body 
up to the human intelligence ; in these two elements 
they change and alter in all eternity. This is the 
being and existence in the universe. 



MATTER AND FORCE 121 

When the third Eleatic philosopher, Zeno, came 
and noticed the contradiction which there was in the 
teachings of his master, Parmenides, who at first had 
put up the proposition that abstract thought is the 
only existence in the universe and all the existing 
things perceived by man were vanity and naught, and 
had afterward asserted that there are two abiding live 
elements in the universe, fire and earth, — he endeav- 
ored to overcome this contradiction by dialectic 
methods. He opined that the first proposition of his 
master was true, that there is only one absolute exist- 
ence in the universe, but all the beings which are 
perceived in the universe, they and their motion and 
their forces appear ouly to man's particularized per- 
ception ; in truth, however, there is no motion or 
active force in the universe. With this philosopher 
the Bleatic school was completed. 

These two schools, the Ionian and the Eleatic, 
were a stumbling-block and an impediment to all 
philosophers up to the present time. The Ionian 
school taught absolute materialism, and the Eleatic 
school taught absolute idealism ; both were based 
upon one and the same pantheism. The Ionian 
reduced divinity to matter ; the Eleatics raised matter 
to divinity. When the philosopher Heraclit came 
and could not find himself aright with either of these 
two systems, he combined them both and advanced 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



the following teaching : " The aggregate of all exist- 
ing things is in an eternal flux. In the perpetual flux 
is perpetual change. All existing things come up 
and go down in this eternal flux. But we may and 
may not come up in this fluctuation, for we cannot 
come up twice because the fluctuation disperses and 
conjoins again. It fluctuates hither and thither. 
Nothing remains forever equal to itself; the flux 
absorbs and expunges everything in it in constant 
motion. It divides itself and gathers itself up in 
another composition. Everything comes from the 
All ; from life comes death and from death life. The 
All is eternal. Nature is everywhere the same in 
changing and variation, in becoming and in annihila- 
tion. The struggle among the living in the existing 
things is the originator of all that exists, for all that 
exists does exist only by the struggle of opposites in 
the eternal flux. Unity itself divides itself in two 
which go side by side like the bow and the arrow in 
the hand of the archer. The perfect and the imper- 
fect, the compound and the simple, the orderly and 
disorderly are tied together in one bond. Thus from 
All comes the One and from One comes the All." 
These lofty and sublime teachings Heraclit incorpor- 
ated in the doctrines of the two schools in order to 
unite the one sublime essence, the one general Being 
with the becoming of the particularizations that 



MATTER AND FORCE I23 

we perceive. But he accomplished nothing, for he 
also knew not the cause of the error of the philoso- 
phers that preceded him. Thus he also could not 
explain the quiddity of the general existence, not the 
quiddity of the particularized beings, not the bond 
which united the two. When he began explaining 
to his disciples the development of creation according 
to his system, he was compelled to assume the exist" 
ence of one element in the universe, viz., fire ; all that 
exists comes from fire and to fire it returns. When 
fire is in its power all beings are dissolved in particles, 
and when its power ceases the particles return to the 
eternal flux and are formed into new compound objects. 
The fire thus blazes up and becomes faint in succes- 
sion in all eternity. In this wise the philosophical 
teachings developed from generation to generation. 
Then Empedocles came and put up the theory that 
there were four elements and two forces that opposed 
each other, the force of attraction and the force of 
repulsion. In this theory he combined all the theories 
of the philosophers that preceded him. The two 
opposite forces working in the four elements are the 
creators and the created in the universe. After him 
came up the teachings of Leucipus and Democritus, 
the atomists, who advanced the theory that there 
were atoms in countless numbers in the universe, 
equal in quality but varying in quantity, — against 



124 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the theory of Kmpedocles who believed only in four 
elements that varied in quality. Anaxagoras, who 
also followed the teachings of the preceding philoso- 
phers, put up the following propositions : " Nothing 
is created and nothing is lost, but from the things 
that exist in the universe new things come into exist- 
ence by commingling and unmixing. All the things 
existing were and ever will be co-existent ; these are 
infinitessimally small particles of countless numbers, 
the atoms which are equal in quantity and in quality 
(the philosophers that followed him called them 
Homoeomeriae, by different opinions, many of them 
regard him as an atomist). Active reason (v.ovi) 
mixes them in various and different compositions and 
ranges them in the order of creation as various and 
different objects." This philosopher, too, combined 
the teachings of his predecessors, and established upon 
their errors a new theory, the theory of dualism ; the 
existence of reason apart from that of matter. He 
saw by the theory of the lonians that matter is of 
absolute existence, the divinity in matte}' ; and by 
the theory of the Eleatics that Mind is of absolute 
existence, inatter in deity ^ in reason. But he knew 
not the origin of these two theories, or how to explain 
the order of creation by them. He, therefore, advanced 
the proposition that Mind is an absolute existence by 
itself and matter is also an absolute existence by itself; 



MATTER AND FORCE 125 

and that mind is the active force in the matter outside 
of it, and ranges and orders the latter by its own free 
will and power. As he knew not the origin of the 
errors of his predecessors, he was also unable to tell 
us what the quiddity of the eternal mind is, or what 
the quiddity of eternal matter is, or what the relations 
are between matter and Mind, and how the latter acts 
upon the former. Then came Socrates and noticed 
the errors of all his predecessors, who like blind men 
in the dark, were feeling for the causes of all the 
existing things in the universe. But also he did not 
know the cause of their errors. He, therefore, turned 
aside from the speculative philosophy which searches 
for the causes of things, and established a practical 
philosophy of ethics and morals. By this he did 
much good to mankind with his teachings as well as 
with his actions, and his fame spread throughout the 
world. 

After Socrates arose the philosopher Plato, who 
renewed the old speculative philosophy. He dived 
very deeply in search after the causes of things exist- 
ing in the universe, like the philosophers that pre- 
ceded him. But, like them he did not succeed by his 
many inquiries in explaining the order of creation 
according to the laws of the mind ; save that he 
anticipated by a dim conception of the Absolute 
Emanation, which he called the soul of the universe. 



126 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

He took hold of the theory of the Eleatics on absolute 
existence, that the Mind is the general existence of 
the universe and its own existence is absolute ; and he 
embraced the theory of Heraclitus about the absolute 
becoming, that matter is also of absolute existence. 
These two theories he combined into one through the 
theory of Socrates that mercy and love are of absolute 
existence in the universe. Matter he represented as 
an absolute being in what his disciples termed iXv, 
this matter is without form, without image, without 
quality. Eternal Mind, by a pure and exalted thought, 
in mercy and love infused in this matter the breath 
of life, — this is the soul of the universe. This uni- 
versal soul orders and works in the eternal matter 
according to the will of the absolute Mind, in mercy, 
love and good order, to form of this matter various 
and different compound objects, and also the indi- 
vidual souls of man, which survive man and after his 
death join the universal. But if Plato knew the cause 
of the errors of the philosophers who preceded him, 
and if he had dived deeply to inquire what Mind 
itself is, that Mind itself is the general abstract image 
of the universe in general in which are cognizable 
the images of all the particularizations one in the 
other, — he would know then that the universal soul 
which he recognized by his profound inquiries is the 
absolute Mind, since in it the images of all compound 



MATTER AND FORCE I27 

objects pass on from their intellectual existence into 
the existence of potentiality, into the universal soul. 
He would then, judging from a priori premises and 
from the general about the particular, understand the 
development of actual existence from the potential 
existence, and he would not create for himself an 
eternal matter which does not exist at all. But Plato 
built his theory upon the errors of his predecessors 
and he founded a system of many eternal things 
against all reason and truth, for there is only one 
eternal Being. 

When his disciple, Aristotle, came and noticed 
his errors without knowing the cause of those errors, 
he spoke in the following terms of Plato's theories : 
" The ideas do not help us in the least to recognize 
the existence of the things that are in the ideas, for 
the thoughts are not immanent in the particulars but 
exist apart from them." For, according to the theory 
of Plato the very essence of thought consists in the 
general conception divested of its particulars, — the 
conceptions which have formed the particulars into a 
general image of thought. Aristotle with these words 
exposed the error of Plato, who, besides that he did 
not explain what thought is and how it affected the 
particulars, did not explain even what the existence 
of the particulars is. When he divested the general 
concept of these particulars, he left nothing by which 



128 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

a self-standing existence miglit vindicate all the 
thought; — i.e.^ by which the general concept might 
exist without its particulars. But Aristotle knew 
not the cause of Plato's error and he also constructed 
a new theory which was also based on the errors of 
his predecessors. 

Aristotle had before him the theory of the lonians, 
that there is one essence in the universe from which 
every existing thing came and to which it returned ; 
then, the theory of the Eleatics that the absolute 
Mind is the absolute existence ; then, again, the the- 
ory of Heraclitus that there is an absolute becoming 
that the aggregate of all that exists is an absolute 
flux, that All is eternal, and from all the eternal all 
is becoming ; finally, the theories of all the philoso- 
phers that preceded him down to his master, Plato. 
He understood their errors, and found that the order 
of creation could not be explained through them. 
But, without finding out the cause of their errors, he 
searched very deeply, by sharp speculations, and 
found out two kinds of existence— the existence of 
potentiality and the existence of actuality. Before 
he understood himself the idea which he conceived ; 
before he pondered this idea by pure reason on a 
priori premises, and judging from the general about 
the particular ; before he searched into the quiddity 
of the existence of potentiality as a self-standing 



MATTER AND FORCE 1 29 

conception and into the quiddity of actuality as a 
conception by itself — he invented for himself two 
fundamental essences which originated four princi- 
ples, and by these he believed to get an explanation 
of the order of creation. In truth, however, this led 
him into the greatest error, and became the cause of 
many great errors among men. The two essences of 
Aristotle were matter in potentiality, which he called 
'iXrj and Form in actuality. This matter, in its 
general abstract conception as devoid of form, is an 
eternal essence, existing in itself without any form or 
image, without change or alteration. It is not defined 
lor any object and possesses no activity and motion 
in itself, but it has a susceptibility and capacity to 
receive action, which is Form, and receiving action 
to be in motion. This is the foundation of all things 
that exist in the universe, whose variation and differ- 
entiation occur in it only through the receiving of 
activity, while in itself, in the abstract general con- 
ception, it is wholly devoid of form : this is the absolute 
existence in potency. Form, too, in its general con- 
ception as devoid of matter, is an eternal being in 
itself ; it is the general activity in the universe which 
affects matter from the outside and brings it into 
motion. It is the universal Soul in general and indi- 
vidual soul of every being in particular. Form is 
the general activity influencing matter and bringing 



130 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

energy (entelechy) into it, so that it comes in motion 
and issues forth from its state of self-heing into a state 
of being by itself^ from potentiality into actuality. 
Matter is thus influenced by form to assume certain 
formations for certain ends, according to the will of 
Form in general, in grace and love, to become certain 
particularizations in actuality, in particular forms 
which are particularized souls coming one from the 
other and one after the other in the order of creation 
in all eternity. And this is Divinity in Actuality. 

Aristotle, also indulging in the very same 
errors as the philosophers that preceded him 
and as the primitive idolators, wished to explain the 
order of creation from a posteriori premises and judg- 
ing from the particular about the general. He saw 
that every being in the universe existed on four 
principles — matter^ form^ action, and eizd or piirpose. 
Searching deeply into these four principles, Aristotle 
found that they are all represented in every existing 
thing and fall back upon two primary essences — mat- 
ter and form. When Form joins Matter, it produces 
action for a certain end or purpose. The purpose is 
attained through the action of form in matter. Thus 
all the principles of existence are derived from the 
primary essences. In this wise he proceeds, explain- 
ing the general existence from the particular exist- 
ence, always on a posteriori '^r^rms.^s and judging by 



MATTER AND FORCE 13I 

induction from tlie particular to the general. He 
saw that every particularized being is an individual 
thing by its particular form. Every particularized 
thing whose form is the more perfect is the more 
individualized among other particularized beings, and 
the less perfect its form, the less individualized it is. 
All beings in the universe are, accordingly, graded in 
the scale of creation. Man, having the most perfect 
form of all other particularized beings, stands the 
highest in the scale of creation, for the human body 
is a human body because it has received the most 
perfect action of the most perfect form ; the matter 
of this human body is consequently in the highest 
degree of perfection. The animal, whose form is less 
perfect, is composed of a lower degree, the vegetable 
is still lower, and the mineral is the lowest of all, for 
the matter of the mineral has received the least action 
of form. Matter of which the mineral is composed 
is, in its general conception, devoid of all form. In 
that state it is the Hyle in its potential existence, 
without form and shape. And so in the reverse. 
When form appears as mineral, it is in the lowest 
state of creation, for then Hyle was aflfected by form 
in the slightest degree ; the form of the vegetable is 
higher, because the effect of form upon Hyle appears 
in it more than the mineral ; the form of the animal 
is still higher, and the form of man is the highest in 



132 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the scale of creation. But the form of the heavenly- 
spheres, which move the whole universe by their 
activity, is, according to Aristotle, the highest in 
existence, and the matter of which the spheres are 
composed is purer and higher than the Hyle of sub- 
lunar creation ; it is quite a diflferent kind of matter, 
eflfected by the highest grade of activity of form ; 
Aristotle calls it the fifth substance. The spheres are 
intellectual beings of the highest production of form 
in its highest conception. The form, then, of which 
the spheres are made, in its general conception, as 
devoid of all matter, pure and unmixed, the Form of 
forms, is Deity, which creates all form in formless 
matter, the Cause of all causes, the Mind of all intel- 
lectual beings, — God in His absolute existence in 
actuality. 

Such is the theory of Aristotle in general and in 
its particulars. The basis of this theory is the error 
of the idolators to believe that there is one essence in 
the universe produces all that exists, without know- 
ing the very quiddity of the essence, and to reason on 
a posteriori premises and from the particular about the 
general. This Aristotelian theory, notwithstanding the 
deep thought invested in it, is false from the begin- 
ning to the end ; at the exception of the two existences 
which he has discovered, the potential and the actual 
existence — but even this he conceived but very dimly. 



MATTER AND FORCE 133 

If he had conceived the potential existence, his 
own discovery, clearly ; if he kuew himself what he 
asserted ; if by deep cogitation he had found out that 
the existence of potentiality precedes the existence 
of actuality ; that the existence of potentiality pro- 
duced the existence of actuality, for everything that 
exists in actuality came to its existence only through 
a cause which preceded it and which contained it in 
potency before it issued forth into actuality ; the 
existence of actuality of everything of actual exist- 
tence is first a potential existence in the cause which 
precedes the thing in actual existence ; thus the 
actual existence of the universe in actuality lies in 
the potential existence of the universe which pre- 
ceded it, in the general previous cause of the universe 
entire ; for the potential existence of the universe 
contained within itself the universal existence of 
actuality before the universe came into actual exist- 
ence, — Aristotle would then know that the existence 
of actuality does not act upon the existence of poten- 
tiality to bring forth what is contained in potentiality 
into actual existence, for the existence of actuality is 
later in time, coming into its actuality only after 
having been contained in the possibility of the poten- 
tiality, and it cannot be an existence by itself not to 
be independent of another existence outside of itself; 
but through a certain other activity in existence 



134 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

whicli is in the existence of potentiality that precedes 
it, and that causes it to become afterwards an exist- 
ence of actuality. Aristotle would know, moreover, 
that the existence of potentiality in the Hyle, which 
he has discovered himself, contains the iorms of all 
compound objects that were, that are and that ever 
shall be in the endless universe in actual existence* 
in one general form in itself— i. e.^ in its potentiality — 
and it is itself the producer ol the forms of all com- 
pound objects, one from the other and one after 
another, in the order of creation, from its potential 
existence into the existence of actuality, by a general 
precedent activity which is neither the potential nor 
the actual existence. Aristotle would then know that 
the Hyle itself is the general form of the universe 
entire which brings forth the forms of all compound 
objects from the general form it contains in potency 
into the particular forms of each of them in actuality, 
and thus it is in itself the form of all forms, and not 
Hyle — not a formless substance. 

So, also, if Aristotle had understood himself the 
existence of actuality, he would also seek to' under- 
stand clearly what actuality is as a conception for 
itself in actual existence. If he had thought deeply, 
he would know that the existence of actuality in the 
universe is not the general existence of the universe 
entire, but every existence of the things of actuality 



MATTER AND FORCE 135 

is a particularized existence of each of the particular- 
ized things as it is found in the universal activity, 
coming from the general potential existence which 
preceded it in the universe in general. For if actu- 
ality, as a separate conception by itself, were the 
general existence of the universe in general ; if the 
existence of the things we perceive in the universe 
in actuality were the existence of the universe entire 
in generality, — the existence, then, would be a gen- 
eral absolute existence in itself, without any change 
in all eternity ; so that all the particularized things 
we perceive in actuality would be abiding and exist- 
ing forever in this, their general and absolute exist- 
ence, for every general existence is absolute and does 
not change. But we see and we know that every 
existence of actuality, as the actual existence of a 
particular thing that is in actuality, changes every 
second. At every second it appears in actuality in a 
certain form or image, and every other second it 
actually changes and becomes a dififerent image of 
actuality. The human body before us, we see it as 
it is appeared in actuality every second, and every 
second it changes in actuality before our eyes. The 
atoms of its composition change every second in 
water, air and other things ; they are all expelled 
from the body and, outside of it, turn into other com- 
pounds and assume different images. And every 



136 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

second the body absorbs other atoms in the place of 
those it expels ; atoms that were previously in other 
compound objects and formed different images com- 
bine again to form the human body. The potential 
existence of the human body keeps it up in its time 
and place in the absolute general existence of the 
universe in potency, and the actual existence in it 
appears and changes every second. If Aristotle had 
pondered this, he might know that the existence of 
actuality is nothing but the manifestation and modi- 
fication of the potential existence which is the general 
absolute existence of the universe entire, and in which 
all the compound objects come and go, are mani- 
fested and changed, appear and alter, arising and 
vanishing like shadows in all eternity ; and the poten- 
tial existence itself is naught but one general form 
of the universe entire in its generality and in its 
particularization. Thus, Aristotle might know that 
his Hyle does not receive the form from outside, and 
it is by itself a formless matter ; but the form which 
we perceive in actuality in the matter of all created 
compound beings in the universe is a form which is 
contained in it and comes from it as it manifests itself 
to us in matter. And this Hyle itself is not matter, 
but the general form ; while the matter of all com- 
pound objects is nothing but the modification of that 
general form which is the essence of the universe 



MATTER AND FORCE 137 

itself. Aristotle might know, then, that the existence 
of actuality is not the general activity that works 
upon the existence of potentiality in the essence of 
the universe, and that it is not the Deity which pro- 
duces all that exists. He would then not teach 
mankind his theory that the form of every particular 
thing in actuality is the general self-standing form of 
the universe entire, that this form it is which works 
upon matter, which is a thing for itself, and formless, 
and that it vests matter with the various and different 
forms, according to its own free-will^ for a certain 
purpose. He would then know himself and teach 
mankind that the form of every particularized being 
of actuality is the manifestation of the general form 
which is in the essence of the universe in potentiality. 
And the essence itself is not matter and not force, but 
one general image which contains in itself the images 
of all compound beings as they exist in actuality, and 
which has become such an image in its existence in 
potentiality through the sublime intellectual image 
as it exists in the Mind, and which issues forth into 
actuality to become particularized images, to reveal 
itself in various and different particulars and modifi- 
cations through one general activity which is beyond 
it, through the Absolute Emanation of the Absolute 
Mind that is neither active nor actuated, and does 
not reveal itself in particulars or in modifications. 



138 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

But Aristotle knew not and understood not all 
this, for in such a way he demonstrated the existence 
of God by the evidences of actuality, of the things as 
they are in actuality. The existence of actuality, 
according to his cosmological demonstration, must be 
previous to the existence of potentiality, not only 
according to its own conception (for the conception 
of existence of potentiality, of the possibility of exist- 
ing, is only relative to the existence of actuality), but 
also according to time, for the possibility of existing 
can be thought of, only after it has become manifested 
in actuality. And by this he establishes the hypo- 
thesis that " there is a worker in the universe who is 
activity itself and that he is the author of all that 
exists." All this is utterly false. The existence of 
actuality must be later than and not precedent to the 
existence of potentiality. If a man invents a machine 
which has not existed in the world before, he cannot 
bring it into actual existence before he knows in his 
mind that it can exist, and that he can bring it from 
its existence in potentiality into actual existence. 
There was a time when there were no human beings 
on the earth in actuality ; but they were there in 
potentiality, for the human race was not imported 
hither from another planet. Man came on earth in 
actuality from his existence in potentiality in the 
existence of the earth, as in the actual existence of 



MATTER AND FORCE I39 

the earth was contained the potential existence of 
man; and through a certain cause the man was brought 
from its potential existence, in earth, into its actual 
existence, as man in actuality. The potential exist- 
ence, which is the possibility of existing, preceded in 
time the existence of actuality. 

The error of Aristotle became the heritage of the 
philosophers that followed him, notwithstanding the 
many errors they discovered in his system. Descartes 
makes the following assertion : " The idea which a 
man may conceive of a winged horse is not in itself a 
falsehood as long as the man does not think at the 
same time that a winged horse can be found in exist- 
ence." Thus this philosopher thinks that, if a man 
believes that a winged horse can exist, his idea is a 
falsehood. This, however, is utterly false ; for Aris- 
totle's error was impressed upon his mind that actual 
existence was previous to the potentiality. The truth 
is that every conception of the mind, which has not 
a refutation in the mind, must have an actual exist- 
ence, when the cause comes to produce it in actuality 
according to the laws of Intellectuality as it is con- 
ceived in the mind. The winged horse has no refuta- 
tion in the mind, because the mind asserts that a horse 
with four legs can be in existence which should have 
also wings when there is a cause for it. If we have 
not such a creature before us in actuality it may be 



I40 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

for the reason that the cause for its actual existence 
is not come yet, or perhaps there was such a cause 
many thousand years before us, and a winged horse 
did actually exist in the world, but another cause 
came afterward and destroyed that species, as many 
other species of animals were extinguished upon the 
earth ; perhaps, moreover, there is still such a creature 
in existence on the planet Mars or on some other 
planet. Let us imagine our earth as it was in its 
primitive state when there was not a human being 
upon it yet, and let us think of a human body behind 
it, upon another planet, or even who came upon it, 
as it was in that state ; and let him assert then, that 
the image of the human body in his mind — he thinks 
of it in its potential state, in the possibility of the 
earth — must be in actuality when the cause will come 
to produce it. Would it be a falsehood then, this 
assertion that the human body of his mind would 
exist in actuality when the cause would come to bring 
it into actual existence ? — Whoever has brains in his 
head must know that the existence itself of the human 
body is not because the body is in actuality, but 
because it was conceived in the Mind before it came 
into actual existence. 

Upon the same error Immanuel Kant based his 
whole theory of " Critique of Pure Reason." The first 
and principal foundation of his theory was the teach- 



MATTER AND FORCE I4I 

iiig of the philosopher Zeno of Cyprus, the founder of 
the system of Stoicism after the time of Aristotle, the 
philosophers of that school followed Aristotle's errors 
because they knew not the cause of those errors. He 
made the assertion that " all the knowledge of man 
comes from the effects which external objects produce 
upon the human senses ; the recognition of external 
objects (objective experience) combine within him 
and form the human mind. The cognition of man 
comes not from his inward wisdom (subjective) but 
from outside things (objective) and therefore such 
cognition is true. But since by the force of imagina- 
tion in the mind false notions mingle with true recog- 
nitions, man must search for the criterion of truth to 
be distinguished between the false notions and the 
true recognitions. The criterions of truth are forcible 
evidences appealing to the force of judgment about 
the ideas which swim up in the human soul." This 
is the foundation which Kant has laid to his teachings. 
He collected and gathered up many more such erro- 
neous thoughts from the philosophers that had come 
after Zeno and established his theory upon them. He 
made the following assertion : " The Ego that thinks 
(the thinking soul of man) is only a naked form of 
consciousness by which man recognizes and conceives 
the things that are external in time and in place. 
The wisdom of the human mind is not an existence 



142 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

by itself. It does not give the human mind the power 
to know out of itself things that are beyond the com- 
pulsory experience." And adducing many strange 
and sophistical reasons to show how antinomies of 
logical conclusions may spring up by reasoning with- 
out compulsory experience, and how errors lie at the 
door of paralogism or conclusions drawn from false 
premises, he gives us the following warning : " Man 
must not conclude that a thing can be in actual exist- 
ence, or in realization, because it is possible to con- 
ceive of it in the mind." This is precisely Aristotle's 
error which has impressed itself upon the minds of 
all the ancient and modern philosophers who knew 
not and understood not the quiddity of the mind itself 
or the methods of judgments. According to Kant, 
the idea of a bird with three or five wings is a mental 
possibility, for it has no refutation in the mind ; but 
such a bird in actuality is an impossibility, for it is 
contrary to the laws of motion. Thus no conclusions 
should be drawn from mental possibilities about the 
possibilities of actuality. But this is utterly false. 
The idea of a bird with three or five wings, which is 
an impossibility in actuality because the laws of 
motion are opposed to it, is also impossible according 
to the mind. For the mind is not a lot of abstract 
conceptions gathered in the brain and mixed up with 
each other, as it was the case by the doubter Kant, 



MATTER AND FORCE 143 

but the quiddity of the mind consists of the intel- 
lectual laws of all the things which exist in actuality 
that they should exist according to the laws of the 
mind. The mind itself asserts that a bird with three 
or five wings cannot be in existence as a bird, because 
it is contrary to the laws of motion. There may be 
malformations in nature, in actuality as well as in 
the mind, only on account of certain other causes 
which have worked on the cause of that thing. So 
also according to Kant there can be two opposite 
motions in the mental conception, while the existence 
of such two motions in actuality is impossible. But 
this, too, is false, for the mind itself asserts that the 
actual existence of two opposite motions is positively 
impossible,— the mental conception of such two 
motions is also an impossibility. The mind itself is 
but the image of all compound objects that can be in 
existence according to the laws of the mind and 
through the laws of the mind, and not through false 
imaginations. Thus every thing that exists in actu- 
ality must exist in the Mind by the conception of the 
mental Laws, before it comes in actuality. 

Let me return to the great philosopher, Descartes, 
regarding the quiddity of matter. He says : 

" Proposition 5. There are not atoms." 

" Demonstration: Atoms, according to their nature, are indi- 
visible particles of matter (according to definition 3). But since 



^44 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

matter subsists in extension (according to definition 2 of this vol- 
ume) which according to its nature is divisible, no matter how 
small its particles may be (according to Axioni 9), every particle 
of matter, be it ever so small, must, according to its nature, be 
divisible; — /. e., there are no atoms, or naturally indivisible par- 
ticles of matter." 

This proposition and demonstration are utterly 
false. The demonstration that matter subsists in 
extension which is divisible is based on Axiom 7 
which asserts that the quiddity of matter is extension, 
and on Axiom 9. The latter, however, is utterly 
false, and consequently the deductions from it are 
baseless and untenable. 

Here is his 9th Axiom : 

" Every extension can be divided in parts, even if it be only 
by the mental process. No one, if he knows only the primary 
principles of mathematics, can doubt this ; for the space between 
the tangents and any given circle can always be divided in count- 
less other and larger circles. The same is the case with the 
asymptotes and the hyperbola." 

Now, this Axiom is utterly false. For even if 
space can be endlessly divided, mentally or mathe- 
matically, matter must be, according^ to the geomet- 
rical principles, indivisible in actuality ; because if 
matter or extension were not indivisible in actuality, 
there would not be a geometrical point in existence 
in the mind. The first definition of the elementary 
or Euclidian Geometry is that : A point is that which 



MATTER AND FORCE I 45 

has no parts, or which has no magnitude. Thus, the 
geometrical point is mentally indivisible. Now, if 
extension is so endlessly divisible in actuality, that 
there is not a physical point in actual existence which 
is indivisible by the mind, that the mind should 
Recognize it as indivisible, then we have no right to 
have a conception in our mind of a geometrical point. 
For even if the mind should recognize that there are 
atoms, indivisible parts of matter in actual existence 
in the universe, the mind must at the same time 
recognize that there are no mental atoms in the mind. 
If the mind should conceive of a physical point that 
it is indivisible in actuality, this point could still be 
mentally divided ; for every physical point, of what- 
ever nature it be, even such a geometrical point which 
has no parts, is always mentally divisible in two 
parts, and those parts, again, can be divided in parts, 
and so forth without end ; that point which has no 
parts —as long as it is a mentally complete thing, a 
whole for itself— y^^ can imagine in our mind a half 
of that whole, a quarter, a fifth part, and so on. 
Thus, if a point which is indivisible in actuality is 
still divisible by the mental process, how is it possi- 
ble to conceive in the mind that a point which is 
divisible in actuality should be mentally indivisible ? 
If there is no physical point that is indivisible, how 
can there be a mathematical point which is mentally 



146 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

indivisible? The truth is, that the very first step of 
Geometry teaches us that the beginning of extension, 
or of matter, is indivisible ; that the unlimited mind 
conceives the limitation of the objective matter, 
although the mind itself is without all limitation. 
The mind itself can imagine a line that is endless, 
but it judges at the same time that such a line cannot 
be in actual existence. So, also, the mind can think 
of a line that can be endlessly divided, although it 
teaches us at the same time that there is no such 
divisible small particles in actual existence in which 
the line can be endlessly divided. The cogitation of 
the mind can think of countless large circles within 
the area between the tangent and the periphery of a 
circle, although the mind itself teaches us as a neces- 
sity, that the actual area, as limited matter, cannot 
be actually divided without end. Thus the Mind, as 
a Whole, the Absolute Intellectuality — as it is the 
mathematical bond to the whole universal existence, 
in which each and every one of the mathematical 
inferences is inferred from the previous and is an 
inference to the following — is the Intellectual Law 
of all the things that can be in actuality, as they 
should be in actuality by their acHial limitation. 
The mathematics of the facts, not of the causes, 
must be brought to the intellectual knowledge of 
the mind, which is the mathematical bond itself, 



MATTER AND FORCE 147 

and mind itself must be the ruler and the judge of 
it. 

The error of Descartes, and of all the philosophers 
that preceded him and came after him, consists in 
that they knew not the real diflference between the 
cogitation of the mind as a general intellectuality — a 
mathematical bondsMd, the perception of the individual 
things through the senses— as particularized images 
of the objective appearances into the human brain. 
Thus says Descartes himself: " Def. i. — Speaking of 
cogitation, I mean all the thoughts that are in us, by 
which we know that we exist ; these are the will, the 
cogitation, the individual imaginations and all the 
promptings of the senses and the mind" (Part I). 
So, also, says Immanuel Kant : " The lot of the 
human mind is like the lot of his sensual perceptions ; 
it constantly lies under the pressure of many ques- 
tions to which there is no answer." According to 
their notions, the pure reason of the mind, which 
judges about the thoughts in general, is nothing more 
in itself than as an offspring of those thoughts about 
which it judges. When a thought enters the human 
brain by the actuation of his individual sensual per- 
ceptions, it generates within it the pure reason to 
judge about its own progenitor ; about the individual 
images which are put by the sensual thoughts into 
the brain and about their being. According to this, 



148 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the lot of the pure reason of the mind is, indeed, like 
the lot of the sensual thoughts. The origin of this 
mistake lies in the fact that these thinkers have 
noticed that there were no mental conceptions before 
sensual perceptions were present. From this they 
formed the conclusion that the cogitation of the mind 
is only an offspring of sensual perceptions ; that men- 
tal cogitation and judgments of the mind are not 
things by themselves, but formations of sensual per- 
ceptions. And, therefore, according to their views, 
when the ideas of things, of their objective appear- 
ance, associate in the brain, they are nothing else but 
just as they are — single ideas of single perceptions ; 
and when, after then, they incite the miud to judge 
about these ideas, by logic, mathematics or geometry, 
they compel themselves to be returned again to those 
ideas as they were before— to regulate their judgments 
only according to the outward appearance of the 
ideas themselves. That there should not be anything 
more in the mind than that which is in the images, 
and nothing in the images but which is to the mind. 
The images change into mind, and mind, again, into 
images. Instead of this, so that they should let their 
ideas in the brain go ahead from their potential state 
to their previous Subjective state, as I have explained 
in the previous chapter, they compel themselves to 
return their ideas to their objective state, to retain 



MATTER AND FORCE 149 

them as single ideas of single things without the pure 
general relation. 

When Descartes was asked, How is it possible to 
conceive of two endless objects that the one should be 
larger than the other ? If we have before us two bodies, 
the one being twice as large as the other, and we say 
that both are endlessly divisible, we assume that one 
endless body is larger than the other endless body, 
and such an assumption is a contradiction in itself 
even according to his own teaching ? He answered, 
" We cannot throw away things of our cognition 
and understanding for the sake of things which are 
beyond our knowledge. We cannot have a clear 
knowledge of endlessness itself." To him, then, 
mind itself is only an offspring of the individual ima- 
gination of man, and he would not trust the judg- 
ment of the mind where there was no sensual percep- 
tion to support it. 

But neither he nor those who argued with him 
understood that extension itself is not a mental image 
in the pure abstraction of the mind. The pure abstrac- 
tion of the mind, which is the abstracted idea of the 
universe entire, standing by itself as a whole, cannot 
be conceived that it extends itself in space and in 
time. Neither Intellectuality nor the Universal 
Essence itself, as a Spiritual Substance, possesses the 
property of extension, in virtue of which they should 



150 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

occupy a certain space in any instant of time. And 
therefore, forming in our mind the general conception 
of the universe entire, by a priori reasoning, there is 
no space and no time included in that conception, in 
our mind. The conception of extension, of time and 
space, came to our mind only by a posteriori reasoning, 
through the sensual perceptions of the objective world, 
only after it is formed in actuality; positively not as 
Immanuel Kant has dreamed. The objective world, 
which are the single parts it contains, appearing to us 
in their singularities, through the changeable matter 
and force, brings about the perceptions of extension, 
of time and space, as the result of its individualiza- 
tion, to our mind. So that our mind judges that the 
universe as'a whole, which has no time and no space, 
and no extension of any kind — as it is never changing, 
modifies the countless number of single objects, com- 
ing one from the other and changing one into the 
other, through which we perceive the designation of 
time and space. 

Thus, we have to understand the essential distinc- 
tion between the conception of the mind itself and the 
sensual perceptions which are brought through the 
muscular senses, to the mind, and to be careful not to 
confound the one with the other. By our sensual 
perception we see only the endness of things, as they 
are limited by their three dimensions in space and 



MATTER AND FORCE I51 

time, and we have no knowledge of the endlessness 
itself, as Descartes said; but by the judgment of pure 
reason in our mind we have a clear knowledge of the 
endlessness and not of the endnesses. Because as our 
pure intellect tells us that the universe exists by 
absolute natural laws we have the clear knowledge of 
the endlessness, that the universe has no beginning 
and no end, and we have no reason and no right any 
more to say, that the existence of the universe can 
ever be limited — that the absolute natural laws should 
not be absolute. The pure intellect may have the 
reason to have the conception of the limitation of 
things — hozv they may be limited — only by arising 
them to the endlessness itself. Since the number is 
endless it must be an endless number of things; an 
endless number of things, simply means, that every 
thing is a thing for itself, limited by its three dimen- 
sions in the infinite space] and since the endless num- 
ber of things exist by certain natural laws, that the 
natural laws are also of an endless number —one end- 
lessness is contained in the other, each of the endless 
number of things, therefore, must pass over^ by its 
limitation, throughout the whole endless number of 
natural laws, coming one from the other and changing 
one into the other in the infinite time\ and finally, 
since the endlessness itself brings about the limitation 
of things and it is conceived by it, the limitation must 



152 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

consequently be limited^ it must be a beginning and 
an end to the limitation; atoms, therefore, indivisible 
small particles of matter, exist. 

The mistake of Descartes has involved Benedictus 
de Spinoza in a mistake still greater. Descartes 
made the mistake of assuming that "extension" is an 
abstraction of mind itself, and this caused him to 
think that matter is a self-existing substance, which 
constitutes extension, and that it was created by the 
substance of Divinity (Prop. 21, Vol. i, "Principles of 
Cartesian Phil. ' ') This involved Spinoza into a still 
greater mistake. With his profound research he 
transcended the boundaries of thinking drawn by his 
master. And he constructed the thesis that extension 
is an attribute of Divinity, or God himself is exten- 
sion; that Divinity, which is absolute Wisdom, is also 
absolute matter, constituting both the substance of 
thought and that of extension. 

For Spinoza went further than his master in his 
researches and arrived at the conclusion that there 
were no two substances in the universe and that no 
substance could create another substance. Accord- 
ingly, he opined, that there is only one substance in 
existence and that we conceive of it by two attributes, 
the attribute of thought and the attribute of exten- 
sion, but in reality they are one and the same thing. 

As many thinkers of his time arose against him 



MATTER AND FORCE 153 

and proved that it was impossible that matter should 
be the divine substance itself, he answered them 
according to the mistake he had inherited from Descar- 
tes and according to the still greater mistake he had 
devised himself. The arguments of his opponents 
which he cites in his own work are as follows: 

" I. — Matter which is a concrete substance, is, as such, com- 
posed of parts. According to this it is impossible that a divisible 
substance should be limitless and endless, that it should be identi- 
cal with the substance of Divinity itself. If we assume that the 
substance of matter is infinite, whatever we think of its parts 
would be self-contradictory. If these parts are finite we have the 
contradiction that the infinite is composed of finite parts ; and if 
these parts are infinite, we have the anomaly that one infinite 
being is larger than another infinite being." 

This objection was supported by many evidences 
of great force. 

" 2. — Matter, as a concrete and divisible thing, can be actu- 
ated. But Divinity, as the most perfect Being, cannot be acted 
upon. Is it possible, then, that the substance which is subject to 
action should be identical with the substance which is not subject 
to action ?" 

To these two objections Spinoza answered in the 
following terms: 

" Every thinker can find that these objections were invali- 
dated already. The questions of my opponents are based upon 
the assumption that the substance of matter is composed of parts. 
But I have proved before that the substance of matter, as a sub- 
stance, is not composed of parts (Prop. 12. 13. and the following). 



154 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Beside this, every thinker, considering the subject with care, will 
find that their mistake upon which they base their conclusion that 
the substance of matter is finite, is not the result-of the assumption 
that the quantity is infinite ; but it was generated because they 
assume that infinite quantity is composed of and measured by its 
finite parts, which, in truth, from this assumption itself we cannot 
draw any other proposition than this, that infinite quantity, as an 
infinite quantity, cannot be measured nor composed of finite parts. 
If they still persist that the substance of extension is finite, they 
commit an error like those who might assert that the image of the 
circle is like unto the image of a square and that, consequently, 
the circle has not a centre from which all the straight lines drawn 
to the periphery are equal to each other. Thus they put up a 
proposition that the substance of matter is composed of parts, or a 
divisible aggregate, in order to draw the conclusion that matter is 
finite. But I have proved before that a Substance is not composed 
of parts; it is infinite, one indivisible thing." 

In this wise Spinoza continues demonstrating 
that extension is indivisible. In conclusion he says: 

"Should the question be asked, why man is naturally 
inclined to believe that quantity is divisible ? I would answer this 
is so, because man knows quantity in two ways ; by imaginary 
perception and by mental cogitation. If we consider quantity as 
it presents itself to our imagination, as we see it constantly before 
us, we perceive of it as a finite thing, as composed of parts. But 
if we consider quantity as a purely intellectual conception, which 
is indeed rather hard to do, we find as I have proved, that quan- 
tity or the Substance ot Extension is infinite, one and endless. 
These demonstrations will be clear to those who can distinguish 
between the perception of the imagination and the conception of 
the mind. They become especially clear when we consider that 



MATTER AND FORCE l55 

matter is everywhere the same, and that we perceive of it as 
divided in parts only through images of the senses which are 
formed by various accidents, but that in its intensive being it is 
essentially always the same. Thus we conceive of water as water, 
that it can be divided in parts and that the parts can be removed 
one from the other. But when we think of water as a raaterial 
element it ceases to be divisible and separable. So, also, water, 
as water, is a created object and ceases to exist; but as a substance 
of matter it v/as never created and shall never cease to be. This, 
I hope, will be a sufficient answer to the second objection of my 
opponents (who argue that matter which is actuated cannot be 
identical with the substance of Divinity) for that objection is based 
upon the proposition that matter is a divisible substance and com- 
posed of parts." 

From these words, coming from the greatest and 
exalted philosopher Spinoza, we see to our sorrow the 
disgrace of mankind; how far they, together with their 
philosophers and scientists, are from the truth. They 
know not the eternal truth, the internal existence of 
the universe in general and of the individual things 
of actuality in particular. If I had found, among the 
philosophers of the world who succeeded Spinoza, any 
who were near to the truth I would have no desire to 
criticise his words, as I have at present no desire to 
criticise all the senseless and foolish things of the 
various religious superstitions. But I have found that 
all the philosophers of the world who came after 
Spinoza during the last two centuries still cling to 
his words, and that they are all removed far from the 



I'yS THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

truth. Many of them hold this Spinoza in high 
esteem just as he is, with the views he expressed and 
with the system he has contrived. Others, again, 
have destroyed his system, and from the material 
thereof have built up other philosophical structures, 
which differ from that of Spinoza only by their names. 
The one calls his system Positivism, the other Materi- 
alism, the third Scepticism, the fourth Evolution, and 
so forth, but they are all one in the Spinoza fanati- 
cism. I am therefore in duty bound to step forth 
again (in this part of my work) to war against those 
who build the Spinoza structures, to demolish their 
edifices to the very foundation and to grind into dust 
their stones, so that they be dissolved again into the 
particles of which they were composed, for they are 
only divisible matter and not substance, to turn them 
into atoms of v/hich compound and created matter is 
composed. 

Spinoza says that those who assume that the sub- 
stance of matter, as a substance, is composed of parts, 
and every thing that is composed of parts must be 
finite (as it is proved that it is impossible that an 
infinite thing should be composed of finite parts, and 
that it is unthinkable that one infinite thing should be 
larger than another infinite thing) and therefore they 
conclude that the substance of matter is not infinite 
and consequently not identical with Divinity — are 



MATTER AND FORCE I57 

like unto those who would put up a syllogism that 
the image of the circle is like unto the image of the 
square, in order to draw the conclusion that the circle 
has not a centre from which all straight lines drawn 
to the periphery are equal to each other. In this 
Spinoza is perfectly right against his opponents. 
Those who assume that the substance of '}natter is 
composed of parts and draw the conclusion that the 
substance of extension is finite, must first assume that 
infinite quantity is measurable. According to this 
their assumption is, indeed, like the syllogism that the 
image of the circle is like unto the image of the square, 
from which the conclusion is drawn that the circle 
has no centre. But as we know that the image of the 
circle is not like to the image of the square, we conse- 
quently infer that the circle has a centre; or,reversedly, 
because the circle has a centre from which all straight 
lines drawn to the periphery are equal, we know that 
it is not like to the square. So, also, do we know that 
infinite quantity, if it could be measured and divided, 
could not be infinite and endless. Spinoza's oppo- 
nents, therefore, should know that infinite quantity is 
immeasurable and indivisible, for it is an infinite 
substance in the Substance of Divinity. But Spinoza 
himself, together with his master Descartes, commits 
a similar error. When he starts with the proposition 
that matter is a concrete substance, he makes an 



158 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

assertion like those who say that the image of the 
circle is like that of the square. And when he draws 
the conclusion that the concrete substance, as a sub- 
stance, is indivisible it is as if he said that the circle, 
being an image like the square with four angles, has 
no centre the radii of which are equal to each other. 
But as we know of a verity that the image of a circle 
is not like that of the square and that, consequently, 
it has a centre, so, also, do we know that there is no 
infinite quantity in the universe; that matter is not 
a substance (in the meaning of the term according to 
Spinoza), and that it can accordingly be divided in 
definite parts. " Water," says Spinoza, " if we con- 
sider it as water, is divisible in parts and the parts are 
separable from each other; but if we consider it as a 
material element, it ceases to be divisible and separ- 
able. So, also, water, as water, has had a beginning 
and shall once cease to exist; but waters as a material 
substance, never had a beginning and never shall 
cease to be," It is true, that water, as water, is divi- 
sible and separable; so, also, water, as water, had a 
beginning and shall once cease to be. But we can 
never conceive of water as a substance that is indi- 
visible, whose parts are not separable, which had no 
beginning and which shall never cease to exist. For 
water, as water, is concrete matter and not a material 
substance; concrete matter is 7iot a material substance. 



MATTER AND FORCE lS9 

The expression " material substance " is a contradic- 
tion in itself, like the expression "a square-circle." 
Again, Spinoza says, " Quantity is known to man in 
two ways: by the image it impresses upon the senses 
and as a mental concept. If we consider quantity as 
a sensual image, as we are used to see it, it is finite, 
divisible and its parts are separable. But when we 
consider it as a mental concept, as a substance, which 
is indeed rather difficult to do, we know it as infinite, 
one and indivisible." It is true, that quantity, as a 
sensual image appears to us, is finite, constituted of 
parts and divisible. I know this for certain, because it 
is true and we have it before us as the quantity of con- 
crete matter. But I cannot conceive of this thing 
what it shall be in the abstraction when it will be 
abstracted of its concrete form. It is not only impos- 
sible for me to conceive or to recognize in my mind a 
material substance like this, as I could not conceive 
of a square- circle^ but I know not even what that 
matter might be if I recognized it in my mind as a 
substance. Does that matter become non-matter? 
That matter is surely not intellect; and if in mental 
cogitation it ceases to be matter also, what is it then ? 
It is true that Spinoza says, ' ' As I have proved 
before." But I know not what he has proved, for in 
reality he has proved nothing. If he had clearly 
substantiated before what the quiddity is of infinite 



l6o THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

quantity itself, I might be able to understand wbat 
he said before, that infinite quantity is not measurable. 
But I am now as unable to conceive of "infinite quan- 
tity," as I do not know the quiddity of a "square- 
circle" and yet I understand and know clearly that 
we have no infinite quantity in the universe either in 
actuality or as a mental concept, just as we have no 
square-circle either in actuality or as a mental con- 
ception. We have the whole universe before us; and 
if we scan it and search it throughout its dimensions, 
if we scrutinize this endless and limitless universe all 
through, we cannot discover a single infinite quantity 
in it in actuality. The universe in actuality is nothing 
but the compound objects it contains, which are 
limited by finite and not by infinite quantities. 
Spinoza himself argues that "as there is no vacuum 
in the universe, but all the parts, which are all the 
compound objects of the universe, are joined together 
and so closely linked to each other that there is no 
void place between them — we are forced to conclude 
that they are in reality not limited and not separated 
one from the other; that the substance of matter, as a 
substance, is indivisible; that this is the infinite quan- 
tity of the substance of matter which is infinite in the 
substance of Divinity." True it is that there is no 
vacuum in the universe, as I have proved also that there 
is no nihility. And yet I know for certain that all these 



MATTER AND FORCE l6l 

parts, these compound objects of actuality in the 
universe are not so closely joined or set together as 
to have no void space between them. But they are 
composed of atoms with infinitesimally small spaces 
separating them within, and they have void space 
outside taking up the room between one compound 
object and the other. These void spaces are not matter 
as well as they are not nihility. If they were matter, 
no motion would be possible in the universe ; if they 
were matter they would keep all compound objects 
firmly each in its place and the whole universe would 
be one solid mass. We see this in actuality. A fish 
swimming in the water moves onward only because 
the particles of water are separated where the void 
spaces which are not water are between them, as I 
have said before; the fish has the power to separate 
the particles of water and to pass between them. But 
when those particles of water are so closely joined 
together as to form ice, the fish can no longer move 
between them, because the water, which is naturally a 
fluid body, becomes a solid when it gets frozen and 
its particles come so closely together as to reduce the 
spaces between them to a certain minimum. When 
the space between the particles of water is so reduced 
the fish cannot move between them. (The reason 
why water increases in dimension when frozen, is, 
that the inside space between the atoms composing 



l62 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the water molecules increases, while the outside space 
between the molecules themselves diminishes, so that 
they draw close to each other and form a solid. The 
fish swimming in the water can separate the mole- 
cules from each other of the fluid body but it is unable 
to divide the space inside the molecules between the 
atoms. The reason and the cause of this which 
makes the water differing in this respect from all 
other fluids will be explained in the following chap- 
ter.) So, also, the water which is in the air moves 
about because it separates the space which is between 
the particles of the air, as that space is not air. 

If we proceed further we learn that all the atoms 
which are in any compound object in the whole endless 
universe are in constant motion; they move about in 
the space in which they are immersed and which is 
not composed of atoms. Even if we could assent to 
the opinion of Spinoza and his master Descartes that 
the atoms are endlessly divisible, we should have to 
assume that there are infinitely small spaces between 
those infinitesimal parts of the atoms, which are not 
the same thing as the parts themselves, and which 
infinitely separate one part from the other so that 
those parts can move about. Thus, beside that it is 
folly to say that one infinity is larger than the other 
(for the infinitesimally small spaces which separate 
between the infinitessimal small parts of the atoms 



MATTER AND FORCE 163 

must be smaller than the parts themselves) we are 
compelled to assume that matter, as such, as a con- 
crete thing in motion, must be divisible in certain 
finite quantities and not in infinite quantity, and that 
there is consequently no infinite quantity or a concrete 
substance in the universe. According to this, the 
second objection which Spinoza cites in the name of 
those who say that matter is divisible, viz., "Why 
are the parts of matter so closely joined together that 
there is no vacant space between them ? " is like the 
question which one might ask, "Why has the circle a 
centre from which all straight lines drawn to the peri- 
phery are equal ? ' ' after he had put up the proposition 
" that the image of the circle is like unto the image 
of the square ! " The truth is that the circle has a 
centre and that is not like unto the square. So also, 
the parts of matter are not joined together, because 
matter is divisible. Everyone who has brains in his 
head should know and understand that the pores 
between the parts of matter are not matter as they are 
not nihility. If they were matter there could be no 
motion in the universe. 

Now, that we know that there is no infinite quan- 
tity in the universe in actuality, we understand still 
more clearly that there is not an infinite quantity in 
abstraction in the intellectual conception. For the 
cogitation of intellect itself is but the infinite existence 



164 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

itself for all the objects of actual being, as I have 
proved in the previous two chapters, that the intellect 
itself is the intellectual universe to the physical uni- 
verse, and that nothing is in the Mind what is not 
produced in actuality just as there is nothing in actu- 
ality which is not in the Mind itself. All the beings 
of the actuality exist and are limited by the laws of 
nature, which are the unlimited laws of Intellectuality, 
and ^precede those beings and cause them to be in 
their existence. And as the universe in actuality 
consists of single parts by finite quantities, in order 
that ^it should be motion in matter by the laws of 
intellectuality, and therefore cannot be found an infir 
nite quantity in matter in actuality, there is, conse- 
quently, no infinite quantity in the cogitation of 
Intellectuality. Moreover, those philosophers who 
assert that there is nothing in the mind which is not 
in the sensual perception, are compelled to assert also 
that no abstraction and no conception in the mind of 
any infinite quantity can be true as we have positively 
no infinite quantity in actuality. 

Thus, the first question which Spinoza asks, viz., 
" If the material substance can be so divided that its 
parts be really separated from each other, why is it 
impossible that one part should turn into nihility 
while the other parts remain still joined together as 
before ? " is also extremely foolish. Everyone under- 



MATTER AND FORCE 1 65 

stands and knows that matter is not made of nihility 
and therefore it cannot be returned into nihility, for 
there is no nihility in the universe. And if we should 
indeed ask such a question we might have to grapple 
with a still greater problem, viz., " Why cannot the 
whole universe become naught together with the 
Substance or the God which Spinoza has contrived for 
himself, since we know not what the substance is and 
Spinoza himself never had a clear conception of it ?" 
The truth is simple and plain: The Intellectuality is 
the Absolute Eternity itself, from which the physical 
universe must be produced as the mathematical infer- 
ence, nothing therefore of the universe can be lost. 
It is also exceedingly foolish when Spinoza says * ' I 
believe that I have answered to the second objec- 
tion which is also based upon the proposition that 
substance is divisible and composed of separable 
parts." Although his opponents have based that 
objection upon the assumption that matter is divis- 
ible, Spinoza knew very well that matter is actuated, 
even if it is indivisible. He says so himself. Even 
God, who is indivisible, is according to his notion a 
Substance that is active and actuated. His opponents, 
however, who did not believe that God is ever actu- 
ated, were therefore right objecting that matter cannot 
be identical with the Substance of Divinity ; for 
matter is ever actuated but Divinity is never actuated. 



l66 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

But if the views of his opponents are correct against 
Spinoza, they are untenable in reality. For those 
opponents of Spinoza opine that God, being perfect 
in the fullest sense of the term, cannot be actuated. 
From this we infer that God cannot be actuated but 
that He can be active. And this is utterly false; for if 
He is active He must also be actuated. Everything 
that is active exercises action on an actuated object, 
and that object which is subject to action produces a 
change in the force which acts upon it. According 
to this, if God acts in nature or in matter, the nature 
or matter is subject to his action, and being actuated 
it produces a reaction or a change in God who acts 
upon it. Even if the activity of Divinity exists in 
one single act in all eternity, Divinity must neces- 
sarily change through the acception of this act by 
nature or matter. Thus the opponents of Spinoza 
should have come to the conclusion that God and 
matter are identical, as Spinoza opined; for Divinity 
is to them only the force which acts in matter, both 
of which are in Him. Thus the views of Spinoza and 
those of his opponents concerning matter and the force 
that actuates it, are both alike foolish and vain. 

In the time of Spinoza, Sir Isaac Newton came 
and established the foundation of our modern science. 
He understood the mistakes of the speculative phil- 
osophers but he also did not know the causes of their 



MATTER AND FORCE 167 

errors ; and therefore, by establishing his theory of 
Gravitation and his three laws of motion, — although 
the science of Mechanics has progressed on the road 
of experimental knowledge through their establish- 
ment, — he reduced mankind to a still lower degree of 
pure Wisdom. Because, as he has conceived the mis- 
takes of the philosophers and also the doubtfulness of 
his own theory, he should have scrutinized more and 
deeply the nature of things as they are in their isolated 
states; and;understood that the isolated state of objects, 
their being separated from each other by their nature 
in the objective world, can positively not be due to a 
general universal force of attraction. As he has estab- 
lished the first law of motion — the "inertia," that 
nothing can be changed by itself —he ought to have 
known, at the same time, that the variation of objects 
and the differentiation of forces do not lie in the 
objects and forces themselves, in their objective 
appearances, but there must be some cause or force 
in their deeper unity, in their general relation, in 
their Subjective state, which is not perceived by the 
muscular senses, by a posteriori method of reasoning, 
but by the conception of the pure reason of the mind, 
by a priori reasoning, and therefore he ought first to 
have conceived the generality of the universe and 
after this judged from the generality about the par- 
ticularizations. And then he would know that the 



l68 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

individuality of objects, — their appearances in their 
singular states /rom their generality— rxm.st positively 
be generated by a general universal force of individu- 
alization, not by a general universal force of attraction; 
and he would not have established the theory of gra- 
vitation which has no reason, no cause and no sense, 
and which limits and reduces the minds of men; as he 
himself ordered his friend Pemberton to state in his 
name that the teaching of gravitation is not a propa- 
gation of knowledge and science but a limitation. 
But he himself, when he turned away from the specula- 
tive philosophers and warned men not to be dependent 
upon transcendentalism, or, as he called it, "Meta- 
physics," took in mind, at the same time, the two 
hypothetical forces : attraction and repulsion, which 
were found out by the ancient philosopher Bmpedokles 
by the mistakes of his precedent philosophers, and 
not knowing the cause of these two forces, nor the 
quiddity of their impulses, he established his theory 
of gravitation as a general law of the universe. 
The falsehood of the whole theory of gravitation 
and the mistake which is contained in his first law 
of motion will be shown by positive arguments in 
the next chapter, where I will deal with the particu- 
larized forces working before us in matter, and with 
the planetary motion, in general. Here, in this chapter, 
however — as I have to do only with the origin of matter 



MATTER AND FORCE 169 

and force and their causes, and as Newton himself 
confessed afterwards his doubtfulness of his theory, 
by stating in a letter to Bentley as follows: " It is 
inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, 
without the mediation of something else, which is 
not material, operate upon and affect other matter 
without mutual contact, as it must do if gravitation, 
in the sense of Epicurus be essential and inherent in 
it," and in another letter stated : "Gravity must 
be caused by an agent acting constantly according to 
certain laws; but whether this agent be material or 
immaterial, I left to the consideration of my reader" 
— I, therefore, in this problem have only to analyze the 
considerations of a few of those prominent readers. 

Prof. Roger Joseph Boscowich, one of the earlier 
of foreign savants to adopt the theory of Newton, has 
attempted to explain the theory of Newton in his 
work on the molecular theory of matter, the greater 
part of which was accepted by our scientists ; but 
there is in it nothing to satisfy the mind of a deep 
logical man. According to Boscowich matter is made 
up of atoms. Each atom is an indivisible point, hav- 
ing position in space, capable of motion in a continuous 
path, and possessing a certain mass, whereby a certain 
amount of force is required to produce a given change 
of motion. Besides this the atoms are endowed with 
potential forces, that any two atoms attract or repel 



I'JO THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

eacli other with a force depending on their distance 
apart. The law of this force, for all distances greater 
than say the thousandth part of an inch, is an attrac- 
tion varying as the inverse square of the distance. 
For smaller distances the force is an attraction for one 
distance and a repulsion for another, according to 
some law not yet discovered. The atom itself has no 
parts or dimensions. In its geometrical aspect it is a 
mere geometrical point ; it is as a mere centre of force, 
the result of whose existence is that two atoms or 
centres cannot approach each other within a certain 
distance. But his whole theory brings man into a 
greater confusion than that of Newton's himself. In 
the first place, saying that atoms have their position 
in space, we do not understand as yet how it is possi- 
ble that the atoms can have their position in space, 
and be capable of motion in a continuous path ? Mat- 
ter is made up of atoms, he said, that according to his 
view, there is no matter besides atoms, that the dis- 
tance between the atoms is not matter ; the question 
remains what is the distance itself or the universal 
space ? If it is not matter, it must probably be nothing 
else than nihility ; that his theory leads us to this 
assumption — that the atoms have their position in 
nihility, which keeps them in their isolated states, 
and makes them to move in a continuous path from 
one place of nihility into the other, which has no 



MATTER AND FORCE 171 

sense according to the material facts and no reason in 
the mind. In the second place, he said, that the 
atoms are endowed with a potential force, that any 
two atoms attract or repel each other with a force 
depending on their distance apart ; and this is posi- 
tively false. A potential force can never be trans- 
formed into an active force as long as there is not 
another force which acts upon it to be transferred ; 
the distances between those atoms are neither matter 
nor force ; the atoms, therefore, being endowed only 
with potential forces were never able to transfer their 
potential forces into attraction or repulsion by them- 
selves. 

The later opinion is that of Le Sage, that the 
gravitation of bodies towards each other is caused by 
the impact of streams of atoms flying in all directions 
through space. These atoms he calls " ultramundane 
corpuscles," because he conceives them to come in all 
directions from regions far beyond that part of the 
system of the world which is in any way known to 
us. His theory is very deep and large, and it is the 
only theory to explain the theory of gravitation in so 
far to be capable of being attacked and defended. 
Prof. J. Clerk Maxwell has already analyzed and 
criticized it, in his article " Atom," in the Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica. But the theory in itself, besides 
all the many questions and contradictions in it, has no 



I 72 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

basis in its very beginning. A theory must be demon- 
strated, either by experimental knowledge or by 
transcendentalism, — positively not by blind belief. In 
the first step of this theory, however, I must believe 
in those ultramundane corj)uscles, that there are such 
particles far beyond that part of the system of the 
world which is in any way known to us, not being 
ever able to investigate them by experimental knowl- 
edge and not knowing the reason of their existence 
or causes by any mental process, nor to have any 
knowledge what is the universal space itself in which 
they are found and through which they act upon each 
other. 

The h3/'drodynamical discovery of Prof. Helm- 
holtz, that a vortex in a perfect liquid possesses certain 
permanent characteristics, has been applied by Sir W. 
Thomson to form a theory of vortex atoms in a homo- 
geneous, incompressible, and frictionless liquid, which 
is known to our modern scientists of our days as the 
Molecular Theory of Gases. That a gas consists of 
molecules in motion, which act on each other only 
when they come close together during an encounter, 
but which, during the intervals between their encoun- 
ters which constitute the greater part of their existence, 
are describing free paths, and are not acted on by any 
molecular force. Clausius was the first to express, by 
experimental and mathematical investigations, the 



MATTER AND FORCE 173 

relation between the density of the gas, the length of 
the free path of its molecules, and the distance at 
which they encounter each other. He assumed that 
the velocities of all the molecules are equal. After 
their many experiments and mathematical investiga- 
tions by many professors and scientists they came to 
these conclusions : That if equal volumes of two gases 
are at equal pressures the kinetic energy is the same 
in each. If they are also at equal temperatures the 
mean kinetic energy of each molecule is the same in 
each. If equal volumes of two gases are at equal 
temjDeratures and pressures, the number of molecules 
in each is the same. This statement has been believed 
by chemists since long ago under the name of Avo- 
gadro's law. In addition to this, in order to have a little 
explanation to those phenomena, they have accepted 
another theory; that there is a subtile, imponderable, 
and eminently elastic fluid, called ether, as a rare me- 
dium consisting of molecules very much smaller than 
those of ordinary gases. The etherical molecules are 
supposed to be so small that they can penetrate 
between the molecules of solid substances, a so-called 
vacuum would be full of this rare gas at the observed 
temperature, and at the pressure, whatever it may be, 
of the etherical medium in space. This molecular 
ether is assumed to act on bodies by its pressure, and 
for this purpose the pressure is generally assumed to 



174 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

be very great. It was reserved for Helmholtz to point 
out the very remarkable properties of rotational motion 
in a homogeneous, incompressible fluid devoid of all 
viscosity. The theory of Helmholtz is, that the points 
of the fluid which at any instant lie in the same vortex 
line continue to lie in the same vortex line during the 
whole motion of the fluid. In the same subjects were 
found many discoveries by experiments and mathe- 
matical observations, through many scientists in the 
latest times; as those of Loschmidt, Oscar Meyer, Clerk 
Maxwell, W. Thomson and many others. 

It is true, they have succeeded very much in 
physical mechanism, by their experiments and mathe- 
matical calculations. But their inductions, in many 
results and laws, are absolutely false. Here we have, 
for an example, two accepted laws in physics and 
chemistry; one of which is Boyle's law, the second 
Avogadro's law, in the nature of gases, by mathema- 
tical calculations; the first of which is true, as a 
material fact, the second, however, is absolutely false, 
as a natural impossibility. Boyle's law, which is 
usually called the law of Mariotte, is thus expressed : 
The volume of gas is inversely as the pressure; the 
density and elastic force are directly as the pressure, 
and inversely as the volume. This law is a positive 
fact in physical mechanism as well as in the nature of 
objects in general. The law of Avogadro, however, 



MATTER AND FORCE 175 

is thus expressed: The molecules of all gases, simple 
or compound, occupy equal volumes; or equal 
volumes of all gases contain equal numbers of mole- 
cules. This is utterly false. Even if it will be proved 
by their ten thousand mathematical calculations, 
it is yet a natural impossibility, because all these 
mathematical calculations are based upon false 
axioms. 

Two glasses of equal volumes, by equal pressures 
and equal temperatures, the one filled with oxygen 
gas and the other with hydrogen : the number of the 
molecules of hydrogen must positively be so many 
times larger than that of oxygen in these two glasses, 
as the "atomic weight" (or the density, according to 
my theory) of the oxygen is larger than the atomic 
weight of hydrogen. Because an atom of oxygen is 
sixteen times larger by its atomic weight, according 
to the views of our scientist, than an atom of hydrogen 
and, consequently, the volume of space occupied by 
one atom of oxygen can be occupied by sixteen atoms 
of hydrogen; and as the density and elastic force are 
directly as the pressure, according to Boyle's law, so 
that by equal pressure the molecules of all gases came 
together by equal empty spaces between the mole- 
cules; that the empty spaces between the molecules of 
oxygen and of the hydrogen in these two glasses are 
equal; the number of the molecules of the hydrogen 



176 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

must consequently be sixteen times more than that of 
the oxygen. 

I,et me explain the abo-ve argument more clearly: 
The atoms themselves, if we will accept them as 
atoms, indivisible particles of matter and not com- 
pound, have no empty spaces in their bodies, as atoms\ 
— for, if they will not accept them as indivisible and 
not compound, they have no right to speak about 
atoms altogether — and as an atom of oxygen is sixteen 
times heavier than the atom of hydrogen, that the 
mass of the body of the atom of oxygen is sixteen 
times larger than that of hydrogen; the space occupied 
by an atom of oxygen must positively be occupied by 
sixteen atoms of hydrogen. The nature of atoms is 
not the same as the nature of all other bodies : Two 
compound bodies may be equal in volume and differ 
in mass, on account of their porosity, but not the same 
is with the atoms, which have no porosity. It may 
be, however, that a molecule of hydrogen is composed 
of a larger number of atoms than the molecule of 
oxygen, and, therefore, being equal in volume are 
equal in number. But this again does not hold true. 
Since we have a patent fact, that from two glasses of 
hydrogen and one glass of oxygen, of a certain weight, 
we get two glasses of water, of the same weight ; and 
since one molecule of water is said to be combined of 
two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, and 



MATTER AND FORCE 177 

one atom of oxygen is said to be sixteen times heavier 
than that of hydrogen ; thus, the one glass of the 
oxygen gas is sixteen times heavier than each of the 
two glasses of the hydrogen gas ; so that we now deal 
in this case, of the combination of water, with the 
molecules of two different gases as well as with the 
atoms together, not with the atoms alone ; we thus 
come to the conclusion, according to our chemists, 
that a molecule of hydrogen contains in itself just 
such a number of atoms as the molecule of oxygen 
contains ; the composition of atoms into molecules, 
according to their mathematical results, can only be 
when they come very close together during an encoun- 
ter to act on each other ; so that the empty spaces 
between the atoms of a molecule of hydrogen are 
equal to the empty spaces between the atoms of the 
molecule of oxygen or to any other molecule ; thus 
the volume of a molecule of oxygen is sixteen times 
larger than that of hydrogen as is the case by their 
atoms ; and consequently, a glass of oxygen and a 
glass of hydrogen by equal pressure and equal tempera- 
ture, the number of molecules in the glass of hydrogen 
must inevitably* be sixteen times more than in the 



* A little difference may occur on account of the different 
numbers of the empty spaces between the molecules of hydrogen 
and the molecules of oxygen. 



178 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

glass of oxygen, and the law of Avogadro is positively 
false. 

The absolute fact that from two glasses of hydro- 
gen and one glass of oxygen we have two glasses of 
water, which seems to be an evidence to their opinion, 
is, in reality, no evidence that the number of mole- 
cules in each of the two glasses of hydrogen are equal 
to the number of molecules of the one glass of oxygen; 
because there is no pure evidence at all, either de 
facto or de abstractor that a molecule of water is com- 
bined of two atoms of hydrogen and of one atom of 
oxygen, and there is also no pure evidence that the 
atomic weight of oxygen is sixteen times more than 
the unit of hydrogen. The experiments of the many 
great chemists, as of Barzelius, Dialong and F. H. 
Keizer, upon which the atomic weight of oxygen is 
based, are no evidence to their result, but that the 
weight of a molecule (or an atom) of oxygen compared 
with hydrogen is eight. Those experiments are deter- 
mined as follows : Pure dry hydrogen gas was passed 
over a red hot copper oxide, combining with the latter 
it formed 30.519 G. water. The copper oxide lost 
27.129 G. of its weight and this figure represents the 
weight of oxygen in the above weight of the water; 
which contains thus: 30,519 - 27.129=3.390 G. of 
hydrogen. In nearly the same way an experiment 
was made by Keizer. Now, instead of this, to cal- 



MATTER AND FORCE 179 

culate plainly, that as in 30.519 G, of water was found 
27.129 G. of O. and 3.390 of H. is a clever evidence 
that the weight of oxygen is about 8 times more than 
that of hydrogen, they have adopted another law that 
a molecule of water contains two atoms of hydrogen 
and one of oxygen, also without any pure evidence. 
If they have found that two glasses of hydrogen and 
one of oxygen form two glasses of water, it is not an 
evidence to their result, but that the porosity of hydro- 
gen is larger than that of oxygen; and therefore, by 
great temperature the one volume of oxygen is con- 
densed into the two volumes of hydrogen, becoming 
two glasses of water. One hypothesis cannot be the 
evidence for the other, as long as it is not proved by 
positive facts and pure reason. In the next chapter 
I will consider the whole of the above explicitly, 
here, I think, it is enough to show that even our 
scientists have no clear knowledge of the origin of 
matter. 

In the same way they have adopted the hypo- 
thetical imponderable fluid called ether, not having 
any positive fact in actuality nor any pure reason in 
the mind that such a fluid may exist beyond our 
objective world. An imponderable fluid is no matter, 
because matter has some weight, however small. It 
cannot be also a vSpiritual or an intellectual being, 
because a spiritual or an intellectual being cannot be 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



thought capable of division in parts or in atoms; an 
imponderable fluid, therefore, has no existence at all. 

I therefore, appear before the philosophic and 
scientific world with my theory, through which I 
explain the whole physical phenomena by positive 
arguments, and have discovered the mysteries of the 
universe. But how far have I succeeded, whether my 
theory is destined to mark a new epoch in the realm 
of thought — history^ mid history alone can tell I 

Every one should know, as a patent fact, that 
there is no such a material thiiig as a " primitive 
solid substance " in the universe, which nature moulds 
and fashions into various objects, the largest one 
apart and the smallest apart, as clay is moulded in the 
hands of the potter. There is also no such a preceding 
mass as an " original matter" that filled up the uni- 
verse, previous in existence to the objects from which 
they are formed. But the substance or the matter 
appears before us into existence a^ matter^ only by the 
formation of the objects. Matter did not produce the 
objects, but the objects produced matter before us. 
Every substance is a composition of minute particles, 
called atoms, in their original, isolated state. The 
atoms themselves, whether they are indivisible or not, 
have already been proved before, and will again be 
proven further on. Every substance or body in mani- 
festation before us, whether it be gaseous or liquid or 



MATTER AND FORCE l8l 

solid or vegetable or animal, the largest heavenly 
bodies and the smallest beings, is naught but a com- 
position of the smallest particles, which we designate 
by the name of atoms, varying in their proximity to 
each other and in the forms or groups in which they 
are joined together. Even in their closest proximity 
these atoms never join each other so closely as to 
leave no space between them. The substance of every 
object, even gold and platinum, the most solid of all 
elementary substances, has a certain porosity, which 
is nothing else than a minute space between the atoms 
of their composition. Those minute spaces are posi- 
tively no matter. For, matter is a thing through 
which we perceive the objects by our senses, it 
possesses the property of extension, in virtue of which 
every body occupies a limited portion of space, and 
the property of impenetrability, in virtue of which 
two portions of matter cannot at the same time occupy 
the same portion of space, while those empty spaces 
do not possess either the property of extension or of 
impenetrability. Because every object in the universe 
is perceived as a single object only on account of the 
empty spaces between them, which are not the same 
thing as the objects themselves, and every object is in 
constant motion also on account of those empty spaces, 
which give room for the objects to move from one 
place to the other, as I have said before. Now, were 



I02 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

those empty spaces matter, possessing the above two 
properties and occupying the whole universal space, 
all the objects of the universe were then but one solid 
body, not perceived as single things, and there were 
no motion in it. The universal space, therefore, is 
positively no matter. Those atoms, however, cannot 
be things of real or absolute existence, nor the origin 
of creation, nor the primitive substance or the original 
matter, of which manifested existence is formed. 

The atoms cannot be things of real existence, for, 
if the existence of the atoms were in themselves as a 
real being, independent of any outside or previous 
cause, that existence should be absolute. The atoms 
then should be the Alpha and the Omega of creation. 
But in such a case it would be naturally impossible 
for them to undergo any change whatsoever. We 
know that their infinitesimal minuteness is beyond 
all that the imagination can conceive and removed 
from all connection with manifested existence. Now, 
if we should assume that the cause of their existence 
is inherent in themselves, that cause would also imply 
their minuteness of quantity and the stability of their 
positions apart from each other. And it would be 
naturally impossible that the same cause should force 
them to change their positions and their relations, to 
form various and different groups. It would be impos- 
sible for the cause of their absolute and separate being 



MATTER AND FORCE 183 

to generate an intensive quality which should drive 
them to form various quantities, just as it is impossible 
for the stone in a state of rest on the ground to move 
by its own impulse. 

The atoms cannot be also the origin of creation, 
for, should we accept the proposition that the atoms 
are the origin of creation, we would have to assume 
that they are possessed of various and diflferent forces 
which cause them to combine in various groups and 
to form various objects. But this cannot be. The 
forces which we perceive at work in the universe 
manifested themselves only after the atoms are formed 
in groups. All the natural forces active in the 
universe are originated one from the other and one 
after the other through the variation of the groups of 
atoms; according to the formation of those groups the 
forces came into existence. There was a time when 
there were no human beings, nor animals nor plants 
on the earth, and consequently not such a force 
to exercise in them. The forces working in a human 
body, in animals and vegetables are not imported 
hither from another planet, nor can they be found in 
the atoms or in the molecules. All the manifested 
forces came into existence only through the process 
of evolution in that they are developed one from the 
other and one after the other in dififerent times and by 
different causes. We have now to investigate the 



184 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

whole thing we see before us and inquire in which or 
in what substance the development is found. The 
matter within itself possesses no power of any process 
of development, The atoms which compose the 
brains of men do not possess anything more than the 
atoms which compose his feet and hands. They are, 
moreover, identically the same in the animal, insect, 
vegietable and solid substances. They are identically 
the same in the liquid and the gaseous substances as 
well as in the planets, sun and stars in all the endless 
dimensions of the universe. The brains of men which 
we perceive as the highest and most perfect develop- 
ment dissolving, turns into various solid, fluid and gase- 
ous substances; the same atoms which form the brain 
with the ability to reason, to know, to judge and con- 
trive thoughts, form also dust, fluids and gasses; com- 
bined in other groups, they form vegetables, animal 
beings and members of the lowest functions of the 
human body. The atoms which are and remain 
always and everywhere identical, form compound 
objects widely differing in composition, structure, 
capacities and form. The manifested variation of 
those objects arises only in the difference in the 
grouping of the atoms. Before they are grouped they 
possess none of the forces which are manifested in the 
compound objects of our perception. So that in the 
matter and force before us, in the objective world, we 



MATTER AND FORCE 185 

can positively never lind the process of evolution or 
development. We should, therefore, assume that there 
is a primary substance beside the atoms by whose 
force the atoms are formed into various groups. But 
we know not of any jnalerial substance in the universe 
besides the one which is a grouping of atoms. The atoms 
are the lasi smallest conceivable particles^ possessing 
the properties of matter. Hence we are forced to the 
conclusion that the existence of manifested objects is 
not contained in any material substance which is per- 
ceived by our senses (in the materialistic sense of the 
term), but that it originates in an abstract essence in 
which the atoms are formed and in which the force is 
inherent to combine the atoms in groups and to form 
the various objects of perception or manifestation. 
That abstract essence cannot be the pure intellect, for, 
no manifestation in pure intellect can be thinkable; it 
can also not be matter, for it would occupy the whole 
universal space and no manifestation could have any 
room in it. The abstract essence, therefore, must be 
of such a kind which is no matter and no intellect, it 
must be the medium between intellect and matter. 
Thus, the Universal Essence, as I call it, is the Ema- 
nation of the Absohite Intellectuality, the Spiritual 
Substance, which is the Essence of matter and force — 
the primitive source of all beings and objects that can 
be by mathematical inferences in actuality in the 



l86 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

whole endless Universe. It is in its essential being a 
radiation of Absolute Intellectuality, it exists as an 
eternal thought or spirit, as a photographic image 
radiated from the Intellectual Light, which is the 
Intellectual Universe. But by that radiation it be- 
comes a something of a general germ or offspring of 
all things in the universe, containing them all in a 
potential state, in which matter and force are abso- 
lutely one; as the Embryo or the Protoplasm which is 
somewhat of a structure, and a growth of plants and 
animals, containing them in potency although the 
Embryo or the Protoplasm is unformed; the Universal 
essence, in the same conception, is an Embryo or a 
Protoplast^ in a deeper unity, of all things of the objec- 
tive universe. The Universal Essence is the Medium 
between Intellectuality and Matter. All mental 
images that are known one in the other in the Abso- 
lute Mind are photographed as a whole^ through the 
Intellectual Light, from their idealistic state into a 
potential state, which is the Universal Essence, and 
then they are transformed in an actual existence, one 
from the other and one after the other, in single 
images, in a concrete form, by mathematical inferen- 
ces, which are the laws of nature, the rules of Intel- 
lectuality, through that Medium,through the potential 
state of the Essence, as they are known beforehand 
one in the other in the Absolute Intellectuality. 



MATTER AND FORCE 187 

The Universal Essence, forming out of itself 
objects of force and matter, which are not absolute 
and ever-changing, it never ceases to be, in the whole 
or in any of its parts, absolute and eternal. The one 
Absolute Emanation, which is the one and the first 
cause and the one law by which the essence exists in 
its absoluteness and by which non-absolute formations 
are produced is always in the potency of the Essence 
itself and identical with it. Every created object, 
which we perceive as a real compound of force and 
matter, existed, before it was formed, in a latent state 
in the object which preceded it, and in its turn it con- 
tains in a latent state objects that will follow it into 
existence. Reversedly speaking, the objects that have 
passed away still exist in a latent state in those which 
now are. Thus, the latent potency from which 
objects issue forth and into which they merge again, 
is the real, absolute and internal existence of the uni- 
verse. The force and matter of which created objects 
are composed, are not force and matter in an absolute 
sense, nor are they things that exist by themselves 
and whose existence is real — but they are products of 
the active manifestation of the potency (the cause and 
the law) of the Absolute Emanation which becomes, 
through the Intellectual Waves of the Cogitation in 
Intellectuality, a general activity in the Universal 
Essence — the substantiation of the Essence itself. It 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



is a spiritual thing emanated from Intellectuality, in 
so far, that its existence is an absoluteness in Him; it 
occupies no space nor possesses any property of matter. 
It is not a spiritual thing of the theological sense of 
the term or that of the " Spiritualists," but it is the 
general essence of the Universe, as an absolute gener- 
ality. It is a Spiritual substance representing imper- 
fectly the whole intellectual image of the whole 
Intellectuality through the Intellectual Light, as a 
photographic image, in which all mental images are 
photographed from their idealistic state into an 
essence of a potential existence. But at the same time 
it comes to be the protoplast, the first germ of all 
things, in so far, that being actuated by the Absolute 
Emanation, which is the Intellectual Light, to be 
emanated from the Intellectual waves, it excites and 
retains itself in a vibrating state, producing thereby 
spiritual waves in the whole Essence, from which 
isolated points are thrown off from their generality 
into an individual state, by the first cause of transfor- 
mation, becoming thereby, at the same moment, the 
first property of matter, to occupy a certain place in 
that Essence, as an individual being. Those isolated 
points I call Atoms, the beginners of matter. Those 
atoms must be, as a consequence through the same 
cause, equally generated, in quantity, quality and in 
their distance from each other in the universal space. 



MATTER AND FORCE 189 

The doctrine of many of our scientists is, that the 
atoms are elementary bodies possessing different quali- 
ties and different quantities. According to their 
views the one absolute and infinite nature of the uni- 
verse consists of a certain finite number of elements, 
which is a contradiction in itself. I have already 
proved the uncertainty of their views, and will bring 
proof against the induction of Dalton's 1? *v explicitly 
in the next chapter. Here, however, I can scarcely 
do more than make this general remark. 

Let us examine the following instance : Sulphur 
and Mercury (hydrogyrum) are admitted by our scien- 
tists as two elementary bodies entirely different one 
from the other. Grind the sulphur and the mercury 
into the finest possible dust and mix them together 
their mixture will not produce any new combination. 
But if we put them together in a retort and place 
them on the fire, they combine and form Cinnabar, an 
object which is unlike either of the two. Through 
this examination we see clearly that, as long as the 
sulphur is sulphur and the mercury is mercury, no 
third object could be formed of their combination. 
Only when you put the mixture on the fire, and that 
force destroys the identities of the two objects, when 
the fire, so to speak, burns the sulphur and the mer- 
cury so that they cease to be what they are — only then 
is the cinnabar produced. That instance holds true 



IpO THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

in all chemical combinations. Every atom of each 
of their elementary bodies, as long as it has its iden- 
tity, its intensive quality in its common temperature, 
can never be combined with another thing to form a 
third object. A new object can only be produced when 
every atom of its " elements" is destroyed by higher 
temperature — by fire, — when it ceases to be what it is; 
when it loses its identity and consequently when it is 
resolved and divided into simpler forms of matter, 
which do not possess the same qualities as that atom 
in; which they were'combined. It is, therefore, clearly 
proved that each atom of every " element" contains 
more than one description of matter. Thus, these 
elementary bodies, which are admitted by our scien- 
tists as "elements" (uncomposed and undivided) 
because all eflforts of chemistry have hitherto failed in 
their decomposition, are, in reality, compound objects 
only; they are composed of simpler forms of matter, 
and are decomposed by every chemical combination. 
Man does not possess the ability to contrive those 
elementary compositions, the atoms are infinitesim- 
ally small beings, and all the crafts of man can- 
not avail to combine them into molecules; our chem- 
ists, therefore, regard them as elementary particles, and 
that they are quantitatively and qualitatively different 
one from the other in their primitive states. But the 
truth is, nature itself knows not of those elements 



MATTER AND FORCE I9I 

wliicii our scientists have invented for; it is one eter- 
nity, contained in one absolute Essence in which there 
is absolutely no change and no variation. 

The Absolute Emanation, which is the one cause 
or force of transformation,, transfers all the spiritual 
points from their generality into their individualiza- 
tions to become at once individualized by the one 
property of matter, to occupy a certain place in the 
Essence ; the one property which we call Extension^ 
or Impenetrability, which are one and the same. 
That every particle of matter occupies a limited por- 
tion of space and that space which is occupied by one 
particle cannot be occupied at the same time by 
another particle. Besides the property of extension, 
no particle of matter, either in its primitive and iso- 
lated state or in any aggregation of bodies, possesses 
any other quality or property. All the atoms of the 
endless universe are equal to each other in quantity 
and in quality, which is nothing more than the exten- 
sion — the quantitative quality, which they possess 
in their isolated states as well as in their grouping of 
any kind ; they are also equally distanced one from 
the other, but only in their isolated states, only in 
their first formations. All the difierent kinds of pro. 
perties, in which bodies represent themselves to our 
senses, are not properties of matter, but modifications 
or transformations of that general activity. 



192 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

The general force, which brings forth the atoms 
in their actual existence, is the same force, by the 
same action or impulse, that keeps them in their state 
and form. The atoms, although they are indivisible 
and conceivable only by our intelligence, are still 
distinct individuals, each of them separately occupy- 
ing some space, and are, therefore, capable of being 
intellectually conceived as consisting of a number of 
constituents — of parts, that go to make up this indi- 
vidual body — the atom, since the space bounded by 
the atom can be conceived to be infinitely divisible. 
That force must be located, therefore, in the centre of 
the atom, whence it exercises its binding influence on 
all parts equally. For, the general force of transforma- 
tion is not a material force ; it is not produced in an 
object through its material formation after it is formed, 
that its exercise should be properly qualified to the 
whole mass or volume of that object, or to exercise 
its whole power in every particle of matter of that 
object alike. But it is a spiritual force, and remains 
always the same ; its action or impulse is the spiritual 
vibration of the Universal Essence, which occupies 
no space, through which spiritual points are thrown 
off from their potential state — from their generality 
into their individualizations ; and in that moment, 
when the spiritual points extend themselves in space, 
becoming individualized in the form of matter, the 



MATTER AND FORCE I93 

Spiritual force remains absolutely the same in tlie 
Absolute Emanation, which is the Intellectual lyight 
of the Intellectual Waves of Intellectuality itself 
which is never extensible. The impulse of the spir- 
itual force itself is to transfer all objects from their 
generality, in which matter and force are absolutely 
one, into their individuality, in which matter and 
force are separately perceived, and, therefore, the force 
cannot be extended with the atom in space ; it cannot 
fill up or occupy the whole volume of the atom, 
but it must remain in the Absolute Emanation and 
must be located in that spiritual point as it was before 
in its generality, before it becomes extension ; that 
point I call the Centre, and that spiritual force which 
is located in the Centre I call — Centrality. The 
definition of the word " force " in my whole system is, 
therefore, the power of conservation in every body, 
which is the force of Centrality. 

It is evident, that the force of Centrality is not 
the hypothetical force of "gravity or attraction," 
which is said to be located in the centre of every body 
to attract everything to it, according to the views of 
our scientists, but it is a force of conservation. Its 
impulse is to keep the atom or the body in its peculiar 
state and form, and there is no other force in the cen- 
tre besides the Centrality. We must, therefore, con- 
ceive the atoms in the first moment of their creation, 



J94 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

being extended in all sides alike, as regular spheres, 
whose radii were equal. The force of Centrality is 
the one tender or innermost force or principle in the 
universe, which holds and correlates the universe 
together in one gradual, harmonious and eternal scale 
of creation, according to fixed, immutable and unvary- 
ing laws of nature, which are the Laws of Intellec- 
tuality, the God of the universe. 



CHAPTER IV. 

UNIVERSAL MECHANISM: 

MOTION 
AND ITS TRANSFORMATION, 



'T^HB force of Centrality, bringing forth the atom in 
its individual state, brings an excitement in each 
and every conceivable point or part of the body of the 
atom, producing thereby a vibration in all its parts. 
The excitement of the atom is the act of the influence 
or reflection of the force of Centrality in the centre 
through which the matter of the atom is acted upon; 
by receiving the action of the force, the matter 
becomes vibrating, producing the motion in matter. 
Thus, the force of Centrality is the active force, while 
the force of motion is passive. The motion is depen- 
dent upon the force of Centrality, as long as the 
influence of Centrality acts in the matter of the atom, 
there is motion in matter. Should, however, the 
force of Centrality cease to exist, the motion together 
with the matter would, then, also cease to be in exist- 
ence. 



196 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

The influence of the force of Centrality, yielding 
and imparting itself to all parts of the atom, dimin- 
ishes itself according to the square of the distance 
from the centre. We have already explained, that 
the atoms, although they are physically indivisible, 
because they are not composed from, nor can be 
divided into simpler forms of matter, yet, since they 
are distinct individuals, and extend themselves from 
their spiritual state— from the centre — each of them 
separately occupies some space, they, therefore, consist 
of a certain number of constituents — of parts— how- 
ever small, that go to make up this individual body — 
the atom, that it should be able to occupy a limited 
portion of space. So that we are able to draw imagi- 
nary circles in the body of the atom around the centre 
till its circumference; the sphere nearest to the centre 
will be the smallest and the spherelbounded by its cir- 
cumference the greatest. The Centrality being con- 
ceived to exist in the centre, its influence to keep the 
body of the atom in its individual state, in order that 
no particle of the body should remove from the centre, 
exercises with its whole power in the parts of the first 
imaginary sphere, four times weaker in the parts of 
the second imaginary sphere, nine times weaker in the 
third sphere, and the weakest at the circumference of 
the body. For the distance of the second sphere from 
the centre is two times greater than the distance of 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM I97 

the first sphere, the spherical activity in the second 
sphere is, as a mathematical consequence, four times 
weaker; the distance of the third sphere from the 
centre is three times greater than that of the first, the 
spherical activity in the third must be nine times 
weaker, and so on. So that the influence of Centrality 
divides itself in as ever as many parts. Hence the 
above law, that the influence diminishes according to 
the square of the distance. 

The vibration of the particles of the atom is quite 
the reverse; it increases according to the square of the 
distance from the centre. It is the greatest at the 
circumference and naught in the centre. The normal 
vibration is in the parts of the first sphere, four times 
greater in the second sphere, nine times greater in the 
third, and so on. For, the parts of the first sphere, 
being the nearest to the centre, do not retain the vib- 
ration in themselves; it passes over by the constant 
action of the centre to the second sphere, where being 
so much increased as the influence of the centre is 
diminished; and as the influence of Centrality con- 
stantly acts, producing every moment new vibration 
in the first sphere, which must pass over again in the 
second sphere, the second sphere, however, cannot be 
in greater vibration than as proportional to the dimin- 
ishment of the influence: the new vibration, therefore, 
must be passed over to the third sphere, where it is so 



198 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

much increased as the influence is diminished in that 
sphere, and so on, until the last sphere, which is the 
•circumference of the whole atom, where the greatest 
force of motion lies 

Now, there arises a struggle between two forces: 
the force of centrality tending to keep the imaginary 
particles of the atom in their place of the body, and 
the force of motion tending to remove them from the 
centre. And if in each part or point of the atom both 
forces were equal and opposite, there would be a 
-destruction of both forces, they would neutralize each 
other. But, as the magnitudes of the two forces are not 
equally opposite in each and every part of the atom, the 
parts nearest to the centre have the greatest magnitude 
of Centrality and the parts of the circumference having 
the greatest magnitude of motion, a resultant force 
must be combined from the two opposite forces. Let 
me explain more clearly: 

The force of centrality can never cease to be what 
it is, for it is a spiritual force from its very beginning 
and it must remain the same forever, never changing; 
its impulse constantly acts on the matter of the atom, 
whereby the motion must ever be produced; the 
motion can be changed from one form to another, but 
itcan never cease to exist as long as Centrality exists. 
The particles of the body of the atom can never 
remove from the centre to occupy a larger space, for 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM I99 

the Centrality bringing the atom in its individual state 
it holds the body as such; from the moment the atom 
becomes extension it can extend no more or less than 
it is. Those particles, again, cannot keep their place, 
for the motion compels them to move. There must 
be, therefore, generated a resultant force, combined 
of the two, to regulate the power of the two forces. 
But as the shape of the atom in its very beginning 
must be a spherical one, having extended from its 
spiritual point in all sides alike, the resultant force 
cannot be generated in that sphere: for it is different 
forces equal and opposite in different directions. Each 
and every particle of the circumference of the atom 
looking eastward has the tendency to move in a straight 
line eastwards, the other particles looking west do the 
same in an opposite direction, and this is the case with 
each other. The shape of the atom must be, there- 
fore, changed into another form, by such a mechanical 
way by its own impulse: While the parts of one side 
tend to move in their direction, the parts of the other 
side keep them back; and thus is it with all sides; 
the motion of all the sides incessantly jumps back 
to the centre and incessantly swings again from 
the centre, bringing thereby a new excitement into 
the centre; the Centrality, therefore, changes its posi- 
tion in the atom, so that the shape of the atom is 
changed from a spherical one into an oval form, longer 



200 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

in one direction and shorter in the other; more mass- 
ive in one end of the long diameter and thinner at the 
other. (Such a change in the form of a bodylwe find in 
mechanics in a swinging machine). In such a form 
the resultant force came into play, to bring the atom 
in a circular motion around its own axis. 

This resultant force is a mechanical result. The 
impulse of Centrality is only to keep the body of the 
atom in its state, in order to be an atom in its certain 
volume and mass, no more and no less, and has 
entirely no power to attract any particle to the centre. 
The first conception of matter and the first cause of 
the physical universeispositively the extension <a'/^;«(?, 
caused only by the same force of Centrality, and there- 
fore, no force of " attraction or gravity " in matter can 
be thinkable ; for, were any force of attraction or that 
so-called force of gravity in the centre of the atom or 
in a centre of any body, then no extension could ever 
be possible in the universe; the property of extension, 
as well as its term, is positively contrary to the term 
and property of gravity. The matter itself from its 
very beginning till the highest development of bodies 
possesses only the one and the first property of 
extension, to be difiused from the centre into more 
space, not to be attracted to the centre. Thus, the 
impulse of Centrality, as it is not a force of gravity, is 
not a direct opposite force to the motion ; it serves only 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 20I 



as a resistance to it, and in the same time, it produces 
motion. The direct opposite forces, however, are the 
diflferent directions of the motion of each part or point 
of the circumference only, and those opposite forces 
came into combination to bring the resultant force: 

Since the shape of the atom has changed in such a 
figure, that the point A of the circumference has its 
tendency to move in a straight line A — A with the 
greatest power of FIG r. 

motion, and the y^x^^ ""^^v. 

point B has its ten- ^^/^-«^ \ 

dency to move the a a o I ^^^ c I 

straight line B — B ..•'^%\'' y 

with a smaller power, ^^a**--*.— — -^-"'''^ 

and the third point C has the tendency to move 
the line C — C, in the other side of the point 
A, with still smaller power ; the resistance of the 
centre C on the point A is the smallest, on the point 
B five times greater and on the point C nine times 
greater, while the motion produced by the centre C 
on the point A is the greatest, on the point B five 
times smaller (nine times minus four) and on the 
point C nine times smaller ; and in the same way the 
resistance of the point C on the point A is four times 
smaller than the resistance of the point B on the point 
A (nine times minus five) ; the point A, therefore, 
makes a tangent between the line A — A and B — B 



202 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

with four times greater power than it could make 
between the lines A— A and C — C (nine times minus 
five), and in the same way are measured all the points 
and all their lines around the centre. The resultant 
is then ascertained by the parallelogram of forces, to 
move from the greatest tangent around the centre, 
that the atoms have a circular motion around their 
own axis. In such a way there is no motion in the 
centre and the greatest motion is in its circumference. 

From this very result we have found the funda- 
mental cause of the most important law of Mechanics, 
— the " parallelogram offerees," — that all the resultant 
and combined forces came into play only through 
Centrality and motion, as a necessity. 

The Centrality which caused the motion of the 
atoms in their first state, the revolving of the atoms 
around their axis, causes again an increase in the rate 
of motion. The influence of Centrality acts constantly, 
producing every moment new motion, and, there- 
fore, ' a stronger tendency in the particles of the 
circumference to move from the centre with a greater 
power, must ever be produced in its second state, 
which may be called the centrifugal force. And since 
the particles of an atom cannot be separated from one 
another, there must be a tendency of the whole atom 
to move from their occupied position in a straight 
line forward. 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 20^ 

In this way a new struggle of forces in different 
directions ensued ; the particles of the atom of one 
end tend to move it in a straight line in one direction^ 
the particles of the other end in another; the result is- 
that the whole atom starts to move in a circumference 
of an ellipse with the thickest end beyond its area^. 
when all the struggling forces come to this resultant.. 

The atom could not move in a straight line in. 
the direction of one of its ends, because it was pre- 
vented from doing so by the other end ; neither could 
it swing to and fro in the swinging area of a pendu- 
lum, because it was prevented from it by the motion 
of the upper and lower parts of the atom. The motion 
of the atom in its first state, it may be thought, is to« 
swing to and fro, because it is a force, but not so cart 
be the case with the matter. And, again, if the atom 
had the same equal motion in all its parts, it would 
have moved in a circumference ol a complete circle 
(if there were a cause to it), but as the thickest end 
of the long diameter has a greater motion than the. 
thinner, and both of these ends a greater motion than, 
the short diameter, it starts to move in an ellipse with, 
its thickest end always out of the area of this ellipse 
and always beyond it, as in such a way all the different- 
rates of motion are at an equilibrium with the force 
of Centrality, and this is the way through which a. 
double movement of each atom — around its axis and. 



204 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

in an elliptical way in the universal space, with which 
the long diameter of the atom makes a certain angle, 
— has originated. Thus, we have established two 
absolute universal laws in nature : The first law is, 
that every individual object in the universe is in 
consta7it motion^ hiherent in itself^ and the second law 
is, that the motion in every object must be modified 
in a7i internal double motion. 

The double motion is the nature of objects by 
themselves. Every object consists of an aggregate 
and immense number of small particles or atoms of 
matter, holding together by one common centre to be 
a body by itself ; so that the influence of the centre 
acts upon every particle of the body to keep its state 
and position in the body, producing herewith a vibra- 
tion in each particle, and those vibrations are opposite 
to each other in their different directions ; the Cen- 
trality, therefore, holding the body to be a body, is to 
regulate all the different directions in one result of a 
mechanical way, in a double motion of the object by 
its being an object^ and, therefore, the sum of the 
motion of an object by its own nature must be propor- 
tional to the number of the atoms, to the mass of 
matter of that body. 

The atoms through their elliptical way in the 
Universal Essence must meet one another, and com- 
ing in contact form one body with one common centre 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 205 

For, the meeting of the two atoms traveling from 
diflferent directions causes a cessation of motion at 
their points of contact, and at the same moment the 
forces of Centrality of both centres of the atoms come 
together to the points of contact which are at rest, and 
build up one centre in those points of contact in which 
the force of Centrality of both atoms is now located. 
In this way a great number of atoms become one body 
with as many times greater force of the influence of 
Centrality, as there had been atoms to combine. These 
bodies I call molecules. Each molecule has its centre, 
wherefrom the influence of the force of Centrality 
divides itself equally to all its component parts. But 
since the atoms by their motion form an inclined angle 
from their axis to their ellipses, and move with the 
thickest end beyond the area of their ellipses, touch 
one another in their union by a very small portion of 
their bodies, therefore, in the formation of the first 
molecules is caused a greater porosity. These mole- 
cules of this kind are, therefore, the lightest; and as 
hydrogen is the lightest of all the chemical elements, 
at the present time, I may have the right to say, that 
the molecules of hydrogen (or, as the chemists call it, 
element) are the first molecules (or element) in the 
universe, all of which possess the same quantities, 
the same qualities and the same law of double motion, 
according to their mass, to the number of atoms as 
there had been to make up one molecule. 



306 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

When the first atoms were converted into the said 
molecules, there were produced empty spaces in the 
Universal Essence, which gave birth again to new 
atoms equally distanced from each other. These atoms 
moved with greater rapidity than the first atoms. For, 
the Universal Essence which is the potential energy 
and potential matter in the latent state of the universe, 
in which matter and force are still absolutely one, 
containing all objects that ever can be in an actual 
existence according to the Absolute Laws of Intellec- 
tuality, all their causes, effects, and all their modifica- 
tions in its one latent potency, it becomes influenced, 
by every effect of every object of actual existence, to 
be revealed in about the same form of actuality from its 
potency gradually. And, therefore, being influenced 
by the rapid motion of the first molecules, it gives 
rise to the new atoms to possess a greater magnitude 
of motion. Thus the new atoms, formed between the 
first molecules, attain a greater motion than the latter. 
The new atoms, having a greater velocity of motion, 
cannot move with the thickest end beyond their area, 
as the first atoms — wherefore, coming in contact with 
one another, must meet by a greater area, of their 
respective bodies; and consequently the atoms, having 
combined themselves in this way, have been created 
in a new kind of molecules, having smaller pores 
between their component atoms, hence the creation 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 207 

of the more compact molecules of Lithium. When the 
universe was filled with molecules of Hydrogen and 
Lithium empty spaces gave rise again to new atoms 
with still greater motion than the previous ones ; the 
rapid motion caused them to come together still closer 
and formed a third kind of molecules, of Beryllium, 
after them the molecules of Boron, Nitrogen, Oxygen 
came into existence, and so on. All the other mole- 
cules, which are recognized by our scientists as 
"elements," came into existence one after the other in 
the same way, according to the different modes of com- 
bination of the atoms, which were continually formed 
and continually acquired more and more velocities from 
the already created molecules and bodies. All these 
molecules (or elements), which came into existence one 
kind after the other, are different in quantity according 
to their mass of matter, to the number of atoms that are 
combined, and are different in qualities according to 
their different porosity, or, as I call it, the different 
density. 

And as all the molecules came one after the other 
and one is influenced by the other, there is, therefore, 
a remarkable relation between the intensive properties 
of the elements and their densities, that the molecule 
Lithium, which came into existence after hydrogen 
and was influenced by it, has a remarkable relation in 
its metallic state to Hydrogen and is only a little more 
compact than hydrogen. 



*08 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

The " Periodic Law " whicli has been pointed out 
by our scientists of the present day, by the Profes- 
sors Newlands, Odling, L. Meyer and Mendelejew, 
which is expressed as follows : " A very remarkable 
relation has been shown to exist between the quanti- 
valence of the elements and their numerical order of 
their atomic weights," has a scientific sense only in 
their material facts, but not to their relative knowl- 
edge, regarding the cause of the relation of the 
"elements" to the " atomic weight," which has no 
reason by the absolute knowledge, as it knows nothing 
about "atomic weight or specific gravity," but know- 
ing only the molecular density and their influences. 

Thus, we have established again another absolute 
universal law: Every massive body in rapid motion 
causes by its influence all the smaller bodies moving 
near it, with a slow velocity'', to increase their motion, 
according to the quantity, direction and distance of 
the moving massive body. But the force of influence 
diminishes according to the square of the distance 
between the two bodies, and the distance in this case 
is measured by the length of the radius of the body 
which exercises the force of influence on another body. 
In the first distance, accordingly, the force or influence 
of the large body is so great that all the surrounding 
bodies in that distance lose their peculiarities of their 
own double motion, and falling upon the circum- 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 209 

ference of the large body they become parts of it, to 
move together in its peculiarity. 

This law is the most important law in nature in 
all its physical phenomena, in the variation of objects 
in all their combinations in chemistry, in all the 
modifications or transformations of motion in physics, 
and this law gives us a clear and a new idea about the 
planetary motion in astronomy as well as in the 
phenomenon of the falling bodies. 

But before I advance to explain by pure general 
arguments the whole universal mechanism, I must 
analyze the three laws of motion, established by Sir 
Isaac Newton, upon which the greatest part of the 
whole modern science is based and which are proved, 
as positive facts, by the whole experimental mechani- 
cal knowledge in the hands of our scientists, and his 
definition of the term "force," and examine them 
whether they do agree with my whole universal 
mechanism or not. 

Here are his three laws of motion : 
First law. — Every body continues in its state of rest, or of 
uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it is compelled 
by force to change that state. 

Second law — Change of motion is proportional to force, 
and takes place in the straight line in which the force acts. 

Third law. — To every action there is always an equal and 
contrary reaction ; or the mutual actions of any two bodies are 
always equal and oppositely directed. 



2IO THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

And here is the definition of the term " force," 

according to Newton : 

" Force is whatever changes the state of rest or uniform 
motion of a body." 

First of all we have to inqure very deeply what is 
force? The definition of Newton tells us nothing 
about it. Saying that " force is whatever changes 
the state of a body," simply means, that there is no 
other force in the whole objective world besides this 
which changes the states of a body, and this is posi- 
tively false. Every one must understand that as we 
have a " force of change" we must positively have a 
force of conservation in the whole objective world 
before ms^ previous and most important to that "force 
of chach;" because if there were no force of conser- 
vation in the objective world there were no existence 
for an objective world, and consequently there were 
no need for a force of change at all. A piece of matter 
which is left to itself — not acted on by forces, said 
Newton, preserves its state^ whether of rest or uniform 
motion in a straight line; he must consequently be so 
kind as to recognize, at the same time, that while the 
piece of matter preserves its state it must have some 
force or power to be conserved. A piece of matter 
existing must have some force or power to exist. That 
force of conservation of every piece of matter, again, 
must be, also, as a positive fact, inherent in that piece 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 211 

of matter within itself. No piece of matter of the 
whole objective world exists by the force of conser- 
vation of another one. One object may be influenced, 
in any way, by another one, but it must have, first of 
all, its own existence to exist at all. So that the 
*' force of change " cannot be, positively, inherent in 
any piece of matter within itself. As it has its 
own force of conservation in itself; that the force of 
conservation must be proportional to its mass, in order 
that each particle of that piece of matter should be_ 
conserved in the certain state of the whole, it cannot 
possess, also positively, in any particle of its mass, at 
any instant of its time of existence, a force of change 
to destroy or to contradict itself. And again, in the 
second law of motion, Isaac Newton said, " change of 
motion is proportional to force," which simply means, 
that the force which acts on motion is not the same 
thing with the motion itself upon which it acts. So 
that the *' force of change " is neither in the matter 
of the object nor in the motion of it. Thus, there is 
no force of change in the universe at all; and thus the 
definition of the term " force," according to Newton, 
which is accepted by the whole experimental mechani- 
cal world, is absolutely absurdity. 

The truth itself, however, is clear and plain. 
The whole physical world before us exists^ and there- 
fore, first of all, we must know clearly either of the 



212 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

two: either there is a general universal force who 
bestowed existence to all, or there is some individual 
forces of existence in every one of all that exist; that 
every existing thing of the whole physical world, in 
whatever state and form it may be, possesses its own 
force of existence as its own property, or each of them 
possesses a part of that general force of universal 
existence. The question is only this: What is the 
general force of universal existence, or what is the 
cause of the force of existence of every one ? 

I have already clearly explained before, by pure 
arguments, that the particularized existence of every 
thing of the objective world — as a non-absolute - is 
produced by the general existence of the universe 
entire, of a subjective world of absolute existence. 
That the general force of transformation transferring 
all the Spiritual Waves from the vibrating essence 
into physical waves as an objective world, becomes 
thereby the Central Force of Conservation in every 
one of the physical waves of the whole objective world 
— in the atoms. And that the influence of Centrality 
produces motion in the atoms, and at the same time 
it combines and regulates itself with all the different 
directions of the motion in one certain state — in a 
double motion. So that, in reality, there is no force 
of change in existence in the universe at all; and if 
all bodies of the whole objective world were equal in 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 213 

mass and volume there were never any change in the 
whole universe; for the Centrality and motion would 
always be regulated in every body in one certain state. 
But since the regulated states of the atoms are of 
double motion — moving around their own axes and 
traveling in the universal space in an elliptical way — 
a great number of atoms, therefore, meet one another, 
and coming in contact they form one body— the mole- 
cule, possessing a greater force of that motion and 
leaving empty spaces in the universal space between 
one molecule and the other, through which new 
atoms are produced, possessing smaller forces of that 
motion than the molecules between which they are 
found; and since the spaces occupied by those mole- 
cules and atoms are the Universal Essence itself of 
potential existence, which contains all objects and all 
effects in latent potency, and which is within itself in 
an eternal Spiritual vibration, the spaces themselves 
in which the molecules and atoms are found, are, 
therefore, ajBfected by the different kinds of motion of 
those molecules and atoms to be vibrated in about the 
same kinds of motion as the states of the objects are 
found, and this affection diminishes according to the 
square of the distance from the object through which 
it is affected. So that the space occupied by a large 
object influences all the surrounding smaller objects, 
according to the square of the distance, to be in a 



214 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Stronger force of motion than they possess within 
themselves — their peculiarities must be changed, and 
the space occupied by a smaller object, possessing a 
weaker force of motion serves as a resistance to the 
stronger force of motion, of the surrounding larger 
objects, also according to the square of the distance, 
their peculiarities must also be changed. Thus, all 
objects of the world are in an eternal struggle of exist- 
ence — in oflfensive and defensive states — m action and 
resistance to action. 

The force of Centrality, however, although it is the 
central force of every individualized object and by keep- 
ing the object in its individual state produces motion 
in it, which causes the change of the objects, is, still, 
the general force of conservation of the absolute exist- 
ence of the universe as a whole ; so that the force of 
Centrality is absolutely not the force of change in the 
objective world. Being located in the centre of one 
object, producing motion in it, and regulating itself 
with all the different directions of the motion in one 
certain state, to be an object for itself; and not for- 
getting to be located, at the same time, in the centres 
of all the objects of the endless dimensions of the 
universe, producing motion in every one and regulat- 
ing itself with all the different directions of the motion 
of the whole endless number of the different objects, 
in the smallest as well as in the greatest, to indi- 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 215 

vidualize them all in their individualizations — it does 
not cease to be, still, the absolute general force of 
conservation of the universe as a whole, the absolute 
existence of its generality ; it ceases not to be the 
Interposer between God and the physical world,— the 
Medium between Intellectuality and Matter. 

Intellectuality itself is the very existence in All, 
the vitality and the whole life of the Spiritual as well 
as of the physical universe. He is the general idea 
of the universe entire ; forming in our mind a general 
abstract image of all the objects that may be in exist- 
ence by natural laws, existing for Himself and by 
Himself as a pure Ideal Being — we conceive the Intel- 
lectuality itself, the God of the universe. His very 
Being is the Cogitation, the Thinking Power in Him, 
an Intellectual Vibration from one infinity into the 
other : from the infinite number of Intellectual images 
of all objects that may be in existence into the infinite 
Intellectual Laws or Mathematical Inferences, and 
again from the infinite Laws into the infinite Images, 
as I have demonstrated in the previous chapters- 
Here, however, I must repeat this : Since an image of 
a certain object is a product of a certain law, that law 
must consequently be previous to that image ; and 
since a law of a certain image is a product of another 
certain image — because there cannot be a law to a 
certain image of an object without a previous object 



2l6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

through which the law is generated to produce a new 
object — that image must consequently be previous to 
that law. Every law must be previous to every image 
and every image must be previous to every law. We 
thus understand clearly the Endlessness of the Think- 
ing Power, that there is no beginning to any law and 
no end, and there is no beginning to any image and 
no end ; the beginning of a law is the previous image 
and its end is the succeeding image, and the beginning 
of an image is the previous law and its end is the 
succeeding law. Since there is no image without a 
previous law and there is no law without a previous 
image, we thus understand clearly that the whole 
infinite number of images and the whole infinite laws 
are bound up in the one Absolute Bond, as an 
Absolute Unity, in Intellectuality. That one infinity 
is enclosed in the other without beginning and with- 
out end. And again, since every one must be conceived 
to be previous to the other, we thus understand, also 
clearly, that all images and all laws are separately 
conceived, each of them mentally individualized, one 
in the other^ in their Absolute Unity ; and that the 
Intellectual Vibration or the Divine Activity gener- 
ates by and retains in Him by Himself; He is not 
active and not passive ; there is nothing upon which 
it passes over His action, and there is nothing whose 
action passes over on Him. And finally, since the 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 217 

Intellectual Vibration oscillates from one infinity into 
the other — as an image of the one infinity — the infinite 
number of images, each of them containing its whole 
infinity, is produced by a law of the other infinity — 
of the infinite inferences of the whole mathematical 
bond — and a law of the one infinity is produced by an 
image of the other infinity, the whole infinite vibra- 
tion of Intellectuality, therefore, consists of Intellec- 
tual Waves, each of them separately cogitated and 
singularly conceived 07ie in the other in their Absolute 
Unity, producing thereby an Intellectual lyight in the 
whole Intellectuality, from which the Universe as a 
whole, the Spiritual Substance, is photographed. 

That Spiritual Photograph — the Absolute Emana- 
tion—is not like a photographic image which is made 
before us in actuality, upon which particles of the 
lighted body are actually passed, and which possesses, 
therefore, its own material, or separated existence, no 
more depending upon the lighted body. The Intellec- 
tual Light of thelntellectual Activity, however, is an 
Eternity within itself, nothing can be separated from it 
and nothing can be added to it; the Spiritual Photo- 
graph — that Absolute Emanation— therefore, can have 
no separate existence without the Lighted Intellectual- 
ity. The Intellectual Waves, again, are not like the 
material waves! of the heaving sea, which rise in one 
second and are reduced to the mother element in the 



2l8 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

next to make room for other formations like them, and, 
therefore, are only material modifications of the heav- 
ing sea. The Intellectual Wave^;, however, being Intel- 
lectual Inferences, one Wave is a mathematical infer- 
ence from the previous Wave and at the same time a 
mathematical inference to the following, they can 
never be modified, as Spinoza opined, one Wave can 
not be reduced to make room for the other, as one 
truth cannot destroy the other truth; one truth is true 
only because all truths remain true, they all are, 
therefore, One Eternity in Intellectuality, incessantly 
vibrating and incessantly producing Light, from which 
the Universal Essence is continually emanated and 
continually conserved. 

So that the Universal Essence, the source of mat- 
ter and force, the source of all that exists in actuality, 
is but the reflection of an eternal existence; no destruc- 
tion, no corruption, no evil and no force of change 
can be found in the Source of all that exists. The 
very Being of Intellectuality, the Divine Activity, is 
the internal existence, the innermost life of the Uni- 
verse as a whole as well as of its individualization. 
The Absolute Emanation, being the Spiritual Photo- 
graph of Intellectual Light in bringing over the whole 
Intellectual Images from their idealistic state into a 
potential state, as spiritual waves in the Universal 
Essence, and transferring them into single objects of 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 219 

actual existence, it brings over the whole innermost 
life of Divine activity to every one of all that exist- 
to be the Central Force in their centres and to pro- 
duce motion — the life of every one. 

But since the Divine Activity incessantly gives 
forth the Essence and incessantly bestows existence 
to all, the Central Force, therefore, continually brings 
over the existence in actuality and continually pro- 
duces motion; and therefore, while the Intellectual 
and Spiritual Existence, occupying no space and 
having no time, in which no superfluity can be think- 
able, is eternal and boundless, the actual existence 
occupying space and having time must be changed 
by superfluous existence. The force of Centrality 
constantly acts in the matter of the atoms, and con- 
stantly producing motion,the atoms must change their 
position in space^ and coming in contact with one 
another form a larger body in time^ leaving empty 
spaces for a new generation of new atoms in time^ 
occupying a new kind of position in space which is 
already afiected by the previous larger bodies ; and 
thus begins the struggle of life — the ofiensive aud 
defensive action, which is the process of Evolution, 
through which all bodies must be changed. Thus, 
the change of position in space and time is the indirect 
cause of change, and, therefore, Newton's definition of 
the term " force" has no sense either according to the 



220 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

experimental mechanism or according to tlie tran- 
scendentalism of pure reason. 

lyet me now consider Newton's first law of motion. 
He said : 

"E>very body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform 
motion in a straight line, except insofar as it is compelled by force 
to chang-e that state." 

It is positively true, that it is impossible for the 
stone in a state of rest on the ground to move by its 
own impulse, and no piece of matter can be changed 
by itself; still, Newton's first law of motion is abso- 
lutely not correct, on account of the following reasons: 

I. The state of rest of the stone or of any body on 
the ground, is not a property inherent in it to be con- 
tinued in that state, and not to be changed by itsel£ 
Every one must understand that the state of rest of 
every body on the ground is caused by an outside 
cause, either by the force of " gravitation " according 
to Newton himself, or to the influence of the velocity 
of the larger body, as I have explained above and as 
will be more demonstrated in the following pages; and 
therefore, we have the right to say: Every body con- 
tinues in a state of rest as long as it is compelled by 
force to be in that state ^ but as soon as that force ceases 
the body retains its own peculiar state^ but we have 
absolutely no right to say that every body continues 
in " its state of rest," except as it is compelled by force 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 221 

to change that state, because no existing thing — as it 
exists^ and as there is no other existence besides the 
motion in it — can have any property of rest within 
itself, except insofar as it is compelled by an outside 
force to be in a relative rest. 

2,. It is a positive fact, that there is no piece of 
matter in the whole objective world, that is left to 
itself, not acted upon by outside forces, and therefore, 
no piece of matter can be found by itself in a state of 
uniform motion in a straight line. It is true, the 
tendency of motion is naturally uniform, to make the 
body moving in a straight line, logically and mathe- 
matically, except insofar as it is compelled by force 
to change that state, as I have also said as a logical 
truth in the second chapter of this volume, and upon 
which my whole arguments on the atomic motion are 
based, because the motion of every body, when it 
should be left to itself^ when there were not any cur- 
vilineal cause acting on it, could not make the body 
move in any other way than of a uniform motion 
in a straight line. But as there could not be a piece 
of matter which should be left to itself, not acted upon 
by outside forces — because the whole objective world . 
before us consists of single bodies, in their being 
different from one another in mass and volume, 
through which each of them must be acted upon, to be 
changed, one by the other — no piece of matter, there- 



322 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

fore, can be found, in actuality, in its ozvn state of uni- 
form motion in a straight line, and, therefore, it is an 
absurdity to say, as a law of nature or as an axiom to 
experimental Mechanics, that every body continues 
in its state of uniform motion in a straight line, 
except as it is compelled by force to change that state, 
while, in reality, such a body in such a state of uniform 
motion, by its own impulse^ has no actual existence 
at all. 

A piece of matter may be found in a state of 
uniform motion in a straight line when it is directly 
compelled by outside forces to be in such a state, as is 
the case by a system of forces, that piece of matter 
being a member of a machine; but in such a case it 
can be in that state only as long as that force, or the 
whole system of forces, acts on it so as to keep it in that 
state, but as soon as that action ceases that state of 
the uniform motion must be changed, and, therefore, 
Newton's first law of motion cannot be vested even in 
such a kind of motion. 

Moreover, in Newton's comments on the first law, 
he introduces the rotation of a body about an axis as 
another of those "states" in which it will continue — 
in virtue of the first law — until force acts to compel it 
to change that state. That this new form of state is 
also maintained in virtue of " inertia," which is, 
according to Newton, a general property of matter, in 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 223 

virtue of which it is incapable of varying in any way 
its state of rest or any state of motion that may occur 
in it. Upon this "axiom " Newton ventured to explain 
the three laws of planetary motion, discovered by 
Johannus Kepler, by the additional hypothetical force 
of " gravitation," and upon which the whole mechani- 
cal, physical and astronomical sciences are based, and 
which is absolutely false. 

I^et me begin with an explanation of Kepler's 
three laws for the general reader : 

First law. Every planet moves around the sun 
in an ellipse, in one focus of which the sun is situated. 

An ellipse is an elongated circle, in which we 
imagine two centres or foci at a distance from the 
periphery of ^ of the elongated diameter of the 
ellipse. In the imagined elliptical orbit which all 
the planets make in their moving around the sun in 
the universal space we have found the situation of the 
sun always in one of the foci of an elliptical orbit, 
and, therefore, the planets in their 
motion around the sun are sometimes 
nearer to the sun and sometimes fur- g 
ther from it. When the planet reaches 
the point D (Fig. 2), it is nearest to C 
the sun, and we say then that it is at 
the lowest point of its ellipse, in the 
perihelion. When it arrives to the 




224 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

point A it is at the furthest distance from the sun, in 
the aphelion, at the highest point of its ellipse. 

Second law. The radius-vector joining each 
planet with the sun moves over equal areas in equal 
time in every part of the planet's orbit. 

The radius-vector is the straight line drawn from 
the sun to a planet, to any point of the planet's orbit. 
The earth, for instance, is a planet completing its 
course around the sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes 
and 7.7-10 seconds. In that period of time, which we 
commonly designate as one year, she runs around her 
whole ellipse and returns to the point from which she 
started. On July the 2d she is in the highest point of 
her ellipse, in the aphelion, or at the greatest distance 
from the sun. On January the 2d she is in the low- 
est point of her ellipse, in the perihelion, or nearest 
to the sun. She runs her course from the aphelion 
to the perihelion in about 182 }4 days and again from 
the latter to the former in the same period of time 
182^ days, and thus she completes her circuit and 
returns to the starting point. According to this, we 
might imagine that a fourth part of the ellipse is run 
by the earth in 91 X days. But such is not the case. 
The second law of Kepler shows that the speed of 
the earth's motion is not equal to the line it must 
pass, but to the area of space which its radius vector 
has to cover. Figure 2, represents the ellipse of the 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 22$ 

earth's motion around the sun. It is divided in six 
equal triangles from the focus S, where the sun is 
imagined to stand, to the periphery, the line which 
the earth travels in one year. The triangles ASB, 
BSC and CSD are perfectly equal to each other, i. <?., 
the area of space contained in the one is equal to the 
area of space contained in the other. In the same 
manner are the triangles on the other side of the 
ellipse DSE, ESF and FSA equal to each other and 
to the former three. The lines AS, BS, CS, DS, ES 
and FS represent the radius vector at six various sta- 
tions of the earth's journey around the sun. In a 
measure as these lines get shorter, the arcs of the 
ellipse between them get longer. Imagine now that 
the earth starts on her annual course from the point 
A. According to the second law of Kepler she must 
run in the first two months not the sixth part of the 
periphery, but the sixth part of the .area of space con- 
tained in the entire ellipse. Thus in January and 
February she runs only from A to B, because these 
two points forming a triangle with S represent just a 
sixth part of that area. In the next two months her 
radius vector must cover an equal area, or the triangle 
BSC, and the earth therefore runs from B to C. which 
is a longer distance than from A to B. In the two 
following months she runs the whole distance from C 
to D, because the area of the triangle CSD is just equal 



2 26 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

to the area of each of the former two triangles. Her 
speed accordingly increases as she approaches the 
point which is nearest to the sun. On the other side 
of her ellipse she makes her way back to her starting 
point at a speed of reversed proportions. She runs 
very fast in the first two months covering the whole 
distance from D to E; from thence to F she runs 
slower; and from F to A she runs still more slower, 
her speed always decreasing in a measure as she gets 
further from the sun. We have divided the ellipse in 
six parts to make our explanation short ; but the 
reader will easily perceive that the motion of the earth 
develops in speed gradually in a measure as she gets 
away further from the aphelion (designated by the 
point A in our fig.); and reaching the perihelion (desig- 
nated by the point D) on her way back to the starting 
point, her motion becomes gradually slower as she 
proceeds. Thus if we divide the ellipse in as many 
equal triangles as there are days or hours or minutes 
in the year, the proportion of the time the earth makes 
in her course will always equal the triangle of space 
covered by her radius vector, and not to the corres- 
ponding length of the arcs of the ellipse she describes; 
she will move always faster, describing longer arcs, 
until she reaches the perihelion, and her motion will 
become correspondingly slower on her way back to 
the aphelion. At the same ratio of speed do all the 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 227 

planets move around the sun, according to the second 
law of Kepler. 

Third law. The squares of the times of revolu- 
tion of any two planets are proportional to the cubes 
of their mean distance from the sun. 

The square of the time of the earth's revolution 
around the sun is 365x365=133,225 days. The planet 
Jupiter revolves around the sun in 4,332 days, the 
square of which is 18,766,224. The proportion between 
these two squares is 18,766,224 : 133,225=140 : i. 
The mean distance of the earth from the sun is twenty 
million German miles. The cube of this distance is 
20x20x20=8,000 million German miles. The mean 
distance of Jupiter from the sun is 102 million Ger- 
man miles, which gives us a cube of 1,061, ao8 millions. 
The proportion of these two cubes is equal to the 
proportion of the former two squares ; 140 : i. Thus 
according to this law, if we know the time in which 
a planet or satellite or comet completes its revolution 
around the sun, we can find its mean distance from 
the sun by comparing it with the time and distance of 
any other orb revolving around the same luminary ; 
for these proportions hold good by comparison between 
any two given orbs revolving around one focus. 

Kepler discovered these three laws by his ingenu- 
ity and by careful study and dilligent research into 
the works and calculations of the astronomers that 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



preceded him. He found that the sun with all the 
planets revolving around him form one system and 
each of them obeys these three laws in its revolution. 
But he did not venture to search into the causes of all 
this. About fifty years later Sir Isaac Newton came 
and undertook to explain, that the revolution of the 
planets was caused by two side-forces working 
together on the planets, one of which is the gravita- 
tion of the sun, as a centripetal force, to attract the 
planets to his centre, and the other is the motion of 
the planets themselves, as a tangental force, to move 
i?i virtue of'''' inertia " in a straight line from the sun, 
through which the resultant force, to move in ellipsis, 
according to Kepler's three laws, is produced : This 
he explained by the following three principles : 

I. Gravitation. That every body attracts every 
other body according to its mass, and the force of 
attraction diminishes according to the square of the 
distance between the two bodies. If the distance 
between the two bodies be doubled, the force of attrac- 
tion will be diminished four times (2x2=4), and if 
they be removed from each other at a distance three 
times as great, their force of attraction will be dimin- 
ished nine times (3x3^=9) and so on. The distances 
in this case are measured by the length of the radius 
(half of the diameter) of the body which exercises the 
force of attraction on another body. 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 



229 



2. Inertia. This is his first law of motion, men- 
tioned above : that every body continues in its state 
of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, except 
in so far as it is compelled by force to change that 
state. 

3. Parallelogram of forces. That two forces 
acting together upon a body, pushing or pulling it in 
two different directions, which form an angle when 
they meet, will produce a resultant force driving that 
body in the direction of the diagonal of the parallelo- 
gram of the angle. This principle is known as the 
parallelogram of forces.^ or the resultant of forces 
according to their respective magnitudes, and which is 
positively true, as I have demonstrated before. 

By these three principles New- 
ton ventured to explain the laws of 
planetary motion discovered by 
Kepler, as shown in this figure 
which illustrates the rotation of the 
orbs of our own solar system. 

The sun, as we have said before, 
is the heaviest body of the whole 
system, which we call our solar system; his weight 
is 700 times as much as that of all the planets which 
revolve around it. He is situated in a focus of the 
ellipses which all the planets describe in their course 
around him. This focus we designate with the letter 




230 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

S. Stationed in his focus the sun attracts to him all 
the planets of his system. But those planets are at 
the same time actuated by another force which drives 
them in a different direction. They are in motion, 
and their own inertia drives them in a straight line 
onward and away from the ellipse, or path they pursue 
around the sun. Every planet is thus actuated by 
two forces — the gravitation of the sun and its own 
inertia — pulling it each in a different direction. It 
must, therefore, run in a line which forms the diagonal 
of the parallelogram of these two directions. Imagine 
a planet, running from east to westward, at the point 
A of this figure. By the momentum of its motion it 
is driven in a straight line toward B. But the sun 
stationed in S pulls it to himself in the direction of 
C. The planes of the two forces form the angle B AC. 
The result of their simultaneous action is that the 
planet is driven in the line AD. the diagonal of the 
parallelogram of this angle. Arriving at the point 
D the planet is still actuated by the same two forces ; 
its own motion drives it toward E and the sun pulls 
it in the direction of E. x'^s a result the planet runs 
toward the point G. Erom that point again, its own 
inertia would carry it in a straight line to H, but the 
sun draws it towards himself in the direction of K 
and it must consequently run to L passing the sun 
southward. From that point again the diagonal of 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 231 

MLP takes the planet in the direction of N, which 
is the lowest point in the ellipse. In the same wise 
as it has run from the highest point of the ellipse, A, 
to the lowest point N, it is driven backward to A 
again by the same two forces. The sun pulls it to 
himself in the direction of S, and the impetus of its 
motion would carry it toward O ; it is, therefore, 
impelled to run in the diagonal line toward Q. As 
the sun still pulls it to S while the momentum of its 
motion would carry it to R, it is compelled to move 
in the direction of T. Further on, the two forces 
working incessantly upon the planet, the sun pulling 
it to V and the force of motion driving it to U, the 
planet runs on the diagonal of their angle which is 
the line TX. Finally, its own inertia pushes it toward 
Y while the sun pulls it in the direction of W, and 
our planet must in consequence run in the diagonal 
line until it reaches A, the highest point of the ellipse. 
It then begins to run its course anew and over and 
over again, because the two, the centripetal force of 
the sun and the centrifugal force of motion, continue 
working upon it incessantly. Our figure is made to 
represent the planet running between eight given 
stations, and its course is, therefore, described as a 
broken or angular line. But bearing in mind that 
the two forces work relentlessly and incessantly upon 
the planet, it will be easy to conceive that the devia- 



232 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

tion toward the diagonal of the parallelogram occurs 
on every point of its course, and that the latter is, 
therefore, a perfect ellipse and not an angular line. 

The motion of the planets in their ellipses around 
the sun according to the parallelogram of forces, shows 
why their speed varies: When the planet is near the 
highest point of its ellipse it is far from the sun, and 
the gravitation of the latter is weaker according to 
the square of the distance; the planet is therefore 
pulled at a slower rate. Passing the two upper tri- 
angles (DSA and ASX in the figure) its velocity 
increases in proportion as it comes nearer to the sun, 
or as its radii vectores get shorter and the third side of 
the triangle— which is the arc of the ellipse — gets 
longer; when it arrives at the point Q its speed is still 
more increased because it then comes within the 
shortest distance from the sun. 

Such is the explanation of the three laws of Kep- 
ler, and this is the whole basis ot the sciences of 
physics and mechanics, as an indisputable verity, since 
Newton has presented it to the world, and in reality, 
that explanation, as well as the basis of those sciences, 
has no sense at all, because the above two side-forces 
do not exist in nature at all, neither as active forces, 
nor as rational conceptions. 

The falsity of the force of " gravitation " I have 
mentioned many times in many pages of this volume 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 233 

before, and I will entirely annihilate it in the follow- 
ing pages. Here, however, while I only deal with 
their first law of motion, and with their conception of 
the property of inertia in matter^ I will consider more 
carefully the property of inertia in matter and prove 
that their " inertia " and all their " explanation " of 
Kepler's laws, as well as of all other phenomena, are 
absolutely false. 

The parallelogram of forces is a well-known prin- 
ciple in mechanics. Two forces working on one body, 
pulling or pushing it in two directions which meet at 
an angle, will produce a resultant force equal to the 
diagonal of the parallelogram of that angle. If one 
of these forces ceases to act and the other remains, the 
body which is acted upon will move in the direction 
in which the remaining force propels it. The resul- 
tant of the parallelogram of forces exists only as long 
as the two forces act together; but as soon as either of 
the two is destroyed, the resultant ceases and the body 
/*^ yields entirely to the re- 

,'^ maining force. Thisisillus" 
^:f-^^''^'^]_g trated by a vessel afloat on a 
v»/%N /^-' river. Imagine a vessel car- 

^^^^^W^A^^Zf^-^Z'^^ Tied by the current of the 
river from point A toward B in this figure 
with a force that would make her reach that point, 
say, in one hour. But a storm arises which 



234 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

drives her toward the point C with equal force at the 
same time. We have in this instance two forces, the 
current and the wind, acting upon one body; the one 
pulling her on the plane AB and the other pushing 
her on the plane AC. The angle formed by these two 
lines is CAB. The result of the action of the two 
forces will be that the vessel will go in the line AD 
which is the diagonal of the parallelogram of the 
angle at which the two forces meet. The vessel will 
move on this line as long as the two forces act together 
upon her. But suppose the storm ceases when she 
reaches the point F and the vessel is left entirely to the 
force of the current. She will at the same time turn 
off the diagonal line which is the resultant direction 
of the two forces acting together upon her, and strike 
out on the line FG which marks the direction of the 
current; the resultant force which carried her toward 
D was destroyed at the moment the wind ceased to 
blow. If the wind, instead of ceasing altogether, 
should lose only half of its force when the vessel is at 
the point F, the resultant force of the current and the 
enfeebled wind would change and carry the vessel 
toward the point H, because the line FH would 
in this instance become the diagonal of the angle 
formed by the two forces. It is the same in every 
case, that the resultant force changes according to 
proportion in which one of the side forces yields to 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 235 

the other, and ceases altogether when either of these 
forces ceases to act. 

I^et us now examine the theories on the origin 
of planetary motion. The ancient physicists opined 
that the motion was generated by the first push; Kant 
and Laplace thought that the planets were jerked into 
space from the body of the sun by the force of his 
revolution around his axis ; the metaphysicians 
believed that a mystic power, a God or an angel, came 
and put the planets in motion by h]s/ree will, so that 
they keep on moving on a plane from east to west 
and not upward above the sun or downward below 
him, lest the force of his attraction pull them to him. 
This arbitrary will divine, moreover, — let us assume — 
throwing the planets into space, endowed each of them 
with the amount of force its motion required to 
counteract the gravitation of the sun, each of them 
with the velocity needed according to its proximity to 
that voluminous body. The planet Mercury, which 
is nearest to the sun received the greatest velocity so 
that it should be able to resist the attraction of the 
sun which acts upon it with the greatest force. Venus 
which stands a little farther from the sun and is sub- 
ject to his attraction in a lesser degree, received a 
smaller gift of velocity. Thus, we assume, the free 
will divine has portioned out to all the planets the 
amount of velocity they require to resist the attraction 



2^6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

of the suu in measure as they are distant from him, so 
that they may observe the laws of Kepler and of New- 
ton. After the first push the power divine withdrew 
to the spheres of Tohu-Vabohu and left the whole 
universe, the suns and the planets to be conducted by 
immutable forces or causes, and the force of gravita- 
tion he delivered into the hands of Sir Isaac Newton 
to instruct mankind how the motion of the planets is 
caused by the resultant of two side forces. One of the 
side forces is the attraction of the sun, the other one 
is the force of motion within the planets themselves, 
and the resultant of the two is the ellipses in which 
the planets revolve around the sun. But their Divin- 
ity or Kant and Laplace have forgotten to enlighten 
us before they left this world why the diagonal of the 
parallelogram of forces, was kept up all along the 
ellipse of the planet since the force of the first push 
was destroyed. We can well understand how this 
diagonal was formed in the first instance. The sun 
pulled the planet to itself in a straight line in the 
direction of S in the figure, and the first push drove it 
in a tangental direction toward B ; and the planet 
had to move in the line AD which was the resultant 
of these two side forces working upon it. But at the 
moment the planet moved in that line the side force 
of the first push was destroyed, while that of the sun's 
gravitation never lagged and never can diminish as 
long as he will keep his mass. 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 237 

They say that a force once in action will continue 
its activity; hence, a body set in motion by a certain 
force will continue moving in virtue of inertia until 
another body comes in its way to stop it. This prin- 
ciple cannot be applied to the motion of a planet 
which was started by the first push. The force of 
motion thus imparted to the planet could continue only 
as long as there was no other force to | check it. But 
at the very start there was the force of gravitation on 
the other side which at once made of the force of 
motion a side force, and the planet had to go by 
the diagonal of the parallelogram of forces. Thus the 
force of the first push was destroyed at once. In the 
second moment that force did not exist any more, not 
even as a side force to that gravitation of the sun . 
The planet was like the vessel (the above figure) which, 
driven by two forces, that of the stream and that of 
the wind together,':went by the diagonal line toward 
F; but as soon as the wind stopped she yielded 
entirely to the force of the stream and broke away 
from the diagonal line. In this wise our planet, after 
the force of the first push was broken, could not con- 
tinue in its distant track from the sun but should have 
made directly toward the latter if the force of gravita- 
tion continued undiminished. 

We have a similar illustration in an arrow shot 
from a string. For a certain distance that arrow runs 



238 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

in a direction opposite to that of the earth's gravita- 
tion. But as soon as the force of the first impulse is 
exhausted, the gravitation of the earth — as our physi- 
cists explain— begins to assert itself. The force of the 
shot becomes a side-force driving the arrow in the 
direction it was started; the gravitation of the earth 
forms another side force pulling the arrow downward; 
the resultant of these two forces is the diagonal line 
in which the arrow descends to the ground. But if we 
observe this incident closely we find that the arrow 
shoots quite a long distance before it begins yielding 
to the gravitation of the earth. If the inertia of force 
were a true principle, and the force which has thrown 
the arrow in the air were suflScient at the start to resist 
the gravitation of the earth, the arrow should by the 
force of inertia continue its motion all the time in the 
direction in which it was started. And, as it finally 
yields to the force of gravitation, so should the planets 
have yielded to the gravitation of the sun as soon as 
the moment of the first push was exhausted after they 
had been thrown into space. 

Our scientists, however, say that there is a great 
difference between an arrow or a ball shot into the air 
and the planets thrown by the first push into space. 
The former is from the very start impeded by the 
denseness of our atmosphere; the force of the impulse 
which set it in motion is enfeebled by the friction of 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 239 

the air. The mathematician Vega showed by his cal- 
culations that a caunon ball weighing 4 lbs. and run- 
ning by the impulse of the shot a distance of 6437 
feet would run in space vacant from air a distance of 
23,226 feet, thus the friction of the air diminished the 
force of the shot by 16,789 feet distance. Hutton 
showed by similar calculations that such a ball weigh- 
ing 6 lbs. and running 2000 feet by the impulse of 
the cannon shot must push a weight of 600 lbs. of air 
in its course. The force of the shot is naturally 
diminished according to the density of the atmosphere; 
each particle of the element resists and enfeebles the 
force until it is exhausted at last and the ball falls to 
the ground. According to this the arrow shooting 
through the air is resisted by the latter. The density 
of water is 777 times greater than that o± the air; a body 
moving in water is impeded by the friction of that 
element 777 times more than it would be by the friction 
of the air. But the case is not so with the planets 
which move in space where these is no dense atmos- 
phere like ours to resist their force of motion. 

This argument, however, does not hold good for 
the simple reason that, if the friction of the air wears 
ofif the force of motion of an arrow or a ball, there are 
greater impediments yet in the way of the planets in 
space. It is an axiom adopted by all physicists of 
the present time that there is no empty space in the 



240 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

universe. Sir Isaac Newton himself, the author of 
the theory of gravitation, asserted that light is a fine 
substance which fills space and falls upon the retina 
of the eye with a certain gravity or weight. Other 
physicists maintain that the whole space of the uni- 
verse is filled with a rarified substance which they 
call aether. Our astronomers find that the comets 
are disturbed in their course by a certain rarified 
substance which fills the universe. Now let us com- 
pare the impediments which our air puts in the course 
of a cannon ball with that which meets the planets in 
their course in space. It is an established principle 
of mechanics that resistance increases according to 
the square of the speed of the moving body — i. <?., if 
two bodies move in one element (in the air or in 
water) one at the speed o*f two feet in a second and 
the other at the speed of four feet in a second, the 
resistance of the element to the latter will be four 
times as great as its resistance to the former. Imagine 
a horse drawing a wagon at the rate of 4 feet in a 
second, and a steam engine pulling one at the rate of 
40 feet in a second ; the resistance of the air to the 
motion of the former in proportion to that of the 
motion of the engine will be like i to 100: 

Horse power=4 ; resistance=4x4=i6. 

Steam power=4o ; resistance=4ox4o= 1,600. 
16 : 1,600=1 : 100. 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 24I 

Let us now take the calculations of Vega into con- 
sideration. According to that mathematician a ball, 
which we will designate as Ba, moving in the air a 
distance of 6,437 ^^^^ i^ opposed by the element with 
a force equaling the distance of 16,789 feet. Suppose 
a second ball Bb moving in the air twice the distance 
of the former; it must have an opposition twice as 
strong, thus: 

Ba moving 6,437 feet=:opposition 16,789. 
Bb moving 12,874 feet:=opposition 12,874x12,874= 

165,739=876- 
If Bb was moving in space where it encountered no 
opposition its motion would be faster : 12,874 + 
165,739,876=165,752,750, Comparing the opposition 
of the air to the two balls we get the following result: 
Speed Ba : Bb=6,437 • 12,874. 

Resistance Ba : Bb^ 16,789 : 165,739,876=1 : 10,000. 
In other words, if Bb moved in an atmosphere 10,000 
times more rarified than the air it would move at an 
equal rate with Ba. Let us now imagine a third ball 
Be moving in our air four times faster than Ba ; its 
speed would be 6,437 x 4^25,748 feet, or a little more 
than a German mile, in a second. The resistance of 
the air to that ball would accordingly be 25,784 x- 
25,784=662,959,504. Comparing this with the resist- 
ance of the air to Ba we find that it is 40,000 times 
stronger — z. e., if Be was moving in an atmosphere 



242 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

40,000 times more rarified than the air we breathe, it 
would meet with as much resistance as the ball Ba. 

According to these calculations, if the planet 
Mercury was moving in our thick atmosphere at the 
speed he moves at present, 6.7 German miles or 
153,048 feet in a second, he would meet a resistance 
1,334,000 times greater than that of the ball Ba. 

Ba 6,437 opposition==i6,789. 

Mercury 153,048 x 153,048^23,423,690,304. 

16,789 : 23,432,690,304=1 : 1,334,000. 
We must assume, accordingly, that the atmosphere 
in which Mercury moves is over one and a third 
million times more rarified than our air. 

Even if we should assume that the atmosphere in 
which the planets move is still more rarified, say ten 
million times more than the air we breathe (although 
such an assumption is beyond all that our physical 
science can entertain) we must admit that there is a 
resistance to their force of motion which is bound 
little by little to destroy that force of the first push 
they have received. The accepted rule of mechanics 
is, as we have mentioned before, that the velocity of 
moving bodies compares directly with their respective 
sizes, and the resistance of the air to their motion 
increases according to the square of speed. Thus, if 
the atmosphere in which the planets move is ten 
million times more rarified than our air, its resistance 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 243 

to their motion is only ten times less than that of the 
air. If then the motion of the ball Ba is resisted by 
the friction of the air with a force equaling the speed 
of 16,789 feet in a second and the ball must, therefore, 
fall to the ground in 5 seconds, — the planet Mercury 
would have to fall to the sun in 50 seconds after it was 
started by the first push. 

But more than 50 seconds have passed already 
since Mercury was set aspinning in space and he does 
not think of falling to the sun yet We are forced to 
the conclusion then, that the force of motion was not 
imparted to him by the first push, in virtue of inertia, 
nor that he is affected by any law of gravitation. And 
what is true of Mercury is also true of all the other 
planets of our system. 

Let me return to Newton's first law of motion in 
which is expressed the property of inertia : When a 
piece of iron is heated by fire, we see that the heat 
increases in it every moment and it gradually 
decreases by its cooling, when the fire is passed. Our 
scientists ascribe such a phenomenon to "inertia." 
That every impulse of the heat which the piece of iron 
receives by the fire every moment is maintained in it 
in virtue of inertia, and therefore, the increasing of 
the heat is proportional to time, and the same is in 
the reverse : it decreases gradually by the impulses of 
the cold atmosphere, which are also maintained in the 



244 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

iron in virtue of inertia. By the same illustrations 
they explain numerous phenomena, of the intensive 
as well as of the extensive properties of bodies, by 
their "inertia of matter. " The uniformly accelerated 
rectilinear motion, for instance, that a body moving- 
under the action of a constant force will move in the 
line of action of the force, and will acquire in each 
second an additional velocity; that the body's velocity 
is continually mcreasm^- during the time of the action 
of the force; and all the laws which apply to such a 
state of a moving body, which are also the laws of the 
uniformly accelerated motion of the falling bodies — the 
first law of which is : T/ze velocities are proportional 
to the tifnes during which the motion has lasted, the 
second : The spaces described are proportional to the 
square of the times employed in their description^ and 
so on— are regarded also as the property of inertia of 
matter. And who would undertake to enumerate the 
phenomena in nature supposed, by our scientists, to 
be explained by it ! Still I venture to assert, that 
their general conception of the property of inertia, as 
well as their definition of the term which it designates, 
and all their hypotheses on all the phenomena ap- 
peared before them in the nature of things internally 
or externally, are absolutely false. 

Every one must understand that the property of 
inertia — if there is, in reality, such a property in mat- 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 245 

ter — is the power in every piece of matter to conserve 
its own state and form, to defend its own intensive 
properties against any attack of any outside power 
which contends to change it into another state and 
form; and therefore, when it is already conquered and 
compelled by any outside power to change — physically 
— any part of its intensive properties, it still continues 
by its internal inertia to defend itself against that 
power, as long as it is not entirely ^tsXxoy^^ chemically 
— insofar as to preserve again its entire previous pro- 
perties by its own power of inertia as soon as that 
outside power ceases. Asa piece of matter if it could 
be left to itself would preserve its state in virtue of 
inertia, that inertia must consequently be inherent in 
it as long as it exists in its certain chemical state, so 
that if any physical change occur in it by the impulse 
of an outside force, that change cannot be more than 
proportional to that force— as Newton himself tells us 
in his second law of motion — that it must be propor- 
tional to the momentum, magnitude and direction of 
that outside force. And since the physical change of 
the piece of matter must be strictly proportional to the 
outside force — because the inertia in it is the counter- 
dciivity^ the resistance^ equal and opposite, as Newton 
himself tells us in his third law of motion — that 
physical impulse, consequently, cannot be converted 
in the same piece of matter as an inherent power in it 



246 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

to conserve the physical change in it; that the same 
piece of matter should maintain that physical change 
in itself in virtue of its own inertia, because the inner- 
most inertia of that piece of matter — as long as it 
exists in its certain chemical state -is the counter- 
activity, the power in it to be defended against that 
physical impiilse. 

The property of inertia in matter is nothing else 
but the influence of the force of Centrality holding 
each physical object in its chemical bond. The first 
action of the influence of Centrality is the chemical 
process in nature, that two atoms coming in contact, 
by their elliptical motion, the Centrality of both 
atoms, then, comes together in the points of contact 
which are in that moment at rest, and form one double- 
atom as one body by one common centre, as I have 
demonstrated before, and at the same time a great 
number of atoms of the surrounding space, pair by 
pair^ come together, with the same momentum, and 
form one molecule in one chemical bond, leaving 
empty spaces in the Universal Essence for a new 
generation of new atoms, through which physical 
changes are produced. So that the chemical process 
of atoms, molecules, bodies and of all the physical 
objects that may be found in the endless dimensions 
of the universe is the influence of the spiritual force 
of Centrality holding them all in their chemical bond, 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 247 

which we have the right to designate with the name 
of Inej^tia i7i ihatter. But the same influence of Cen- 
trality continually produces motion, causing inces- 
santly physical changes outwardly, as I have demon- 
strated also before ; that the first molecules, having 
their momenta according to their masses, influ- 
ence the whole space around them to be in greater 
vibration, thus causing the new atoms to possess a 
greater momentum than the previous atoms, through 
which a physical change, by time and space^ is already 
generated outwardly ; the chemical process of those 
new atoms, therefore, must be quite different than 
that of the first atoms, and grouping together into one 
molecule they possess different qualities through the 
outward physical changes, causing different porosities, 
and hence — a new kind of molecules which are also 
by their chemical process conserved. By the same 
order, through the physical changes, many molecules 
of the same momentum come together and form a 
large chemical body of the same qualities and many 
molecules of different momenta come together and 
form chemical bodies possessing different qualities, 
all of which are conserved by the same internal 
chemical process, by the one spiritual force of Cen- 
trality — the inertia in matter. The physical changes 
of the objective world are the products of the different 
momenta and the moments of momenta, the different 



248 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

magnitudes and directions of the motion of the mole- 
cules and bodies in different times and spaces, by 
which new chemical processes are ever produced. 
One impulse of a physical change is the beginning or 
the first step of a chemical process, the second impulse 
of the same physical change is the second step of the 
chemical process, and so on, until the object is decom- 
posed and then is composed again. The action of 
chemical processes is the composition and the action 
of physical changes is the decomposition of objects. 

Pure iron, for instance, which is recognized by our 
chemists as an element, which has a white color and 
perfect lustre, extremely soft and tough, as long as it 
has no trace of carbon and silicon, possesses its first 
chemical process, so to speak, to be composed as an 
iron-object. The outward physical changes produced 
by the spaces in times of the different vibration of atoms 
and molecules in the Universal Essence brought about 
the grouping of a large number of atoms to be com- 
posed in a certain proximity to each other by one 
common centre to be the composition of our pure iron 
object. That pure iron when it is mixed up, by phy- 
sical changes, with carbon and silicon undergoes a new 
chemical process, by which we obtain ordinary black 
iron. From that black iron we may prepare the pure 
iron again, according to Mitscherlich, by introducing 
into a Hessian crucible four parts of fine iron wire 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 249 

cut small and one part of black iron oxide. This is 
covered with a mixture of white sand, lime, and 
potassium carbonate, in the proportions used for glass- 
making, and, a cover being closely applied, the cru- 
cible is exposed to a very high degree of heat. A 
button of pure metal is obtained, the traces of carbon 
and silicon present in the wire having been removed 
by the oxygen of the oxide. We see clearly, that the 
very high degree of heat, which is the outward physi- 
cal change— insofar as it brings a greater quantity of 
motion on the piece of iron — has decomposed our piece 
of black-iron, through which there has been separated 
the pure iron apart, to remain in its previous chemical 
process, and the carbon and silicon apart, to undergo 
a new chemical process. The first chemical process of 
the iron has been produced by the physical changes of 
the atoms and molecules in space and time, bringing 
a certain number of atoms in a certain group by 
a certain proximity to each other; then came carbon 
and silicon, which are also groups of atoms by differ- 
ent proximity to each other, by their chemical pro- 
cesses, and acted upon each other; all their actions are 
only the outward physical changes, their different 
momenta, the different magnitudes and directions of 
every one in space and time, through which they pro- 
duce upon each other a greater quantity of motion, 
which is naturally a higher degree of heat, by which 



250 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the atoms of all the groups begin to move hastily, to 
be diffused from their previous proximity, to be decom- 
posed, and they all were mixed up in one group, in a 
new chemical process, producing our black iron. And 
when it is introduced into the above crucible with 
oxygen, it becomes decomposed again by a very high 
degree of heat, which is naturally a very great quan- 
tity of motion, that all the atoms of the one group are 
diffused again from their previous proximity; and as 
the atomic motion of the oxygen group possesses a 
greater velocity than many other groups, on account 
of their peculiar kind of proximity, the atoms of the 
oxygen group are earlier diffused than those of the other 
groups, causing a greater influence, by their larger 
velocity, upon the atoms of the other groups, in that 
crucible, and losing their own peculiarities they 
become combined with the oxygen group,and our black 
iron remainsalone as a pure iron object again. Such 
is the case with all other iron compounds and such is 
the case with all the molecular compounds, from the 
minerals up to the human brains. 

The general laws of chemical combination 
accepted by our scientists may be, in some ways, quite 
different, and therefore I must analyze the first prin- 
ciple of the theoretical chemistry more explicitly, in 
order that we may get clearly the pure knowledge of 
Universal Wisdom. 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 25 I 

First of all they have accepted the atomic hypo- 
thesis of Dalton, which is based upon the following 
two laws: i. The law of equivalents^^ciQ.ox^\Vi<g\.o^\\\Q^'^ 
the replacement of elements one by another always 
takes place in definite proportions; 2. The law of multi- 
ples^ according to which the several quantities of an 
element A which can unite witb a fixed quantity of 
another element B, stand to one another, for the most 
part, in simple numerical proportions. The observa- 
tion of these laws has led them to the idea that tlie 
elementary bodies are made up of indivisible particles 
called atoms, each having a constant weight peculiar 
to itself; and that chemical combination takes place by 
the juxtaposition of these atoms, i to i, i to 2, i to 3, 
2 to 3, etc. , a group of atoms thus united being called a 
molecule. Then, they admit that the main character 
which distinguishes true chemical combination from 
mechanical mixture consist in this, that the mechan- 
ical mixture always exhibits properties intermediate 
between those of its constituents, and in regular grada- 
tion, while there is no gradual blending of one into 
the other in the chemical combination, but each com- 
pound is sharply defined by an impassable gulf. Then, 
they admit that the atomic weight of oxygen compared 
with that of hydrogen is 16 to i, and that a molecule 
of water contains two atoms of hydrogen and one of 
oxygen, and in such a way they have accepted many 



252 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

suppositions, all of which are based upon the atomic 
hypothesis of Dalton. 

The main argument of the supposition of our 
chemists, that the equivalent weight of oxygen com- 
pared with that of hydrogen is 16 to i, is based upon 
the following experiments : When sodium is thrown 
upon water, 18 parts of that compound (=2 hydrogen 
+ 16 oxygen) are decomposed, in such a manner that 
half of the hydrogen is expelled by an equivalent 
quantity of sodium, 23, and sodium hydroxide (NaH O) 
is formed, containing==sodium 23+hydrogen i+oxy- 
gen 16. This compound remains in the solid state when 
the liquid is evaporated to dryness ; and if it be further 
heated in a tube with sodium, the remaining half of 
the hydrogen is driven off, and anhydrous sodium 
oxide remains, composed of 46 parts sodium + 16 
oxygen. From these two experiments it follows that 
the composition of water is=hydrogen (i + i)+oxygen 
16, the composition of sodium hydroxide is=hydrogen 
I + sodium 23 + oxygen 16, and the composition of 
sodium oxide is==sodium (23 + 23) + oxygen 16. 

Regarding these results in connection with their 
atomic hypothesis of the constitution of bodies, they 
have supposed that each molecule of water must con- 
tain one atom of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen; 
for if it contained only gone atom of hydrogen, then, 
since the first action of the sodium is to expel only 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 253 

half the hydrogen, it would follow that each atom of 
hydrogen would be split into two, and that each 
molecule of sodium hydroxide would contain only 
half an atom of hydrogen; this, however, is at variance 
with the fundamental notion of atoms, namely, that 
they are indivisible. These two atoms of hydrogen 
are combined with a quantity of oxygen weighing i6, 
which is therefore the smallest quantity of oxygen 
capable of entering into the reaction under considera- 
tion : 

H HO+Na = H Na O+H 
I I i6 23 I 23 16 I 
and they have found that the same is true with 
regard to all other well-defined reactions in which 
oxygen takes part. Hence, this quantity of oxygen, 
16 parts by weight (hydrogen being the unit), is 
regarded as the weight of the atom of oxygen. 

But, after begging pardon, and after conferring 
honor and due respect on every one of the whole phil- 
osophical and scientific world who have succeeded on 
the road of experimental knowledge in mechanical 
chemistry, physics, astronomy and in all other branches 
of modern science, I must say that all their hypotheses 
upon which their experimental knowledge is based 
are absolutely untenable. 

In the first place, we must understand that every 
smallest conceivable part of oxygen — let it be sup- 



254 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

posed to be the molecule or the atom of oxygen — is 
oxygen ; the smallest conceivable part of hydrogen is 
hydrogen, and the smallest conceivable part of sodium 
is sodium ; and at the same time- when oxygen and 
hydrogen combine themselves into water, the small- 
est conceivable part of water is then also nothing else 
but water, and when sodium with oxygen and hydro- 
gen combine themselves together, forming (Na H O) 
sodium-hydroxide, the smallest conceivable part of 
this compound is then also nothing else but sodium- 
hydroxide. No one of the whole scientific world can 
deny this; for those "elements," as they are recog- 
nized by our scientists as elements, not composed 
of simpler forms of matter, are positively nothing 
more than what they are, since every smallest con- 
ceivable part of an element must be equal to itself. 
Water as a compound object, too, must also be 
equal to itself. As the whole amount of those ele- 
ments, each smallest conceivable part of oxygen and 
each smallest conceivable part of hydrogen consti- 
tuted together so the compound body of water, so that 
the whole quantity of oxygen and the whole quantity of 
hydrogen have been converted into that body of water ; 
and as we find this verity also in the facts of actual- 
ity, that water, whether obtained from natural sources 
or formed by direct combination of its elements, 
always contains in lOO parts by weight 88.9 parts of 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 255 

oxygen and ii.i of hydrogen, so that the whole mass 
of those elements, their quantities by their whole 
weighty is now the very quantity of the body of water — 
we must therefore conclude also, as a positive fact, that 
the least smallest conceivable part of water is neither 
oxygen nor hydrogen, but only water alone, and this 
verity is positively true with all the compounds of 
the whole physical world. We thus are forced to 
conclude, as a positive fact, that all the elementary 
bodies lose their "elementary" peculiarities, their 
whole qualities, by the action of the chemical combi- 
nations, and that the essential character which dis- 
tinguishes true chemical combination from mechani- 
cal mixture consists in this, that the mechanical 
mixture has only to do with the quantities of the 
objects, while chemical combination has only to do 
with the qualities of the objects. 

Since the quantities of the compounds are the very 
quantities of the elements from which the bodies are 
composed, the chemical action, therefore, composing 
the compounds changes, consequently, only the qual- 
ities of the elements, while their quantities remain 
the same ; and since the entire quantities of the ele- 
ments are the very quantities of the compounds, 
possessing entirely new qualities^ the previous quali- 
ties of the elements must consequently be entirely 
destroyed by the chemical action ; that Dalton's 



256 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

"atoms" of oxygen and hydrogen, when they are 
combined into water, have ceased to be atoms of 
oxygen and atoms of hydrogen, becoming only atoms 
of water ; that those " atoms " have been decomposed 
by the chemical action from their previous composi- 
tions \ that all the "elementar}' bodies" accepted by 
our scientists are positively no elements, because 
they are also composed of simpler forms of matter 
and capable to be decomposed ; and finally, since those 
"elements," each of which possesses different quali- 
ties, are composed of simpler forms of matter, those 
simpler forms of matter, if they should possess dif- 
ferent qualities, must also be composed of simpler 
forms of matter, and so on. Thus we are forced to 
this conclusion — that there are positively no elements 
in the universe at all. 

In the second place the atomic hypothesis of 
Dalton, that the elementary bodies are made up of 
indivisible particles called atoms, each having a con- 
stant weight peculiar to itself, has a logical contradic- 
tion in itself and is a natural 'impossibility. Because, 
as each atom has its peculiar weight, so that there is to 
be found one atom larger in weight, which simply 
means larger in mass than the other, we have no right, 
any more, to say that those atoms are indivisible par- 
ticles; for, the larger atom can be divided, by its mass, 
and can be conceived to be split into so many parts 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 257 

of matter as the smallest atom contains. If the atom 
of oxygen is said to be larger in weight, larger in mass, 
sixteen times more than the atom of hydrogen; the 
mass of matter of the oxygen-atom can positively be 
divided into sixteen particles of matter, each of which 
will be equal to the mass of matter of the hydrogen- 
atom. We may have the right logically to say that 
the indivisible particles of matter called atoms are 
conceived to be constituted of constituents — of parts 
which made up the bodies of the atoms occupying a 
certain portion of space; they are indivisible, insofar 
as there exists no smaller particle of matter in the 
universe as a body of an atom, in which they may 
actually be divided as a certain portion of mass, and 
at the same time they may be conceived to be consti- 
tuted of parts, insofar as they occupy a certain por- 
tion of space which can mentally be endlessly divided. 
But we have no right logically to say that those indi- 
visible particles possess each of them a peculiar weight, 
a diflferent amount of mass; for, if they all are indi- 
visible, they all must be of the same weight, and there 
cannot be any smaller mass of matter than any indi- 
visible particle; and if they are different in weight 
they are positively no indivisible particles of matter. 
And again, an indivisible particle of matter which is 
larger than'the other is a natural impossibility; because, 
as there is one atom larger than the other, there must 



258 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

be a certain particularized active cause to make it 
larger than the other; and to every particularized 
active cause there must always be a reactive cause or 
a resistance to that action; if we may assume that all 
the atoms of the endless dimensions of the universe 
are equal in mass, we have then nothing to do with 
any patricularized cause or force, but with the one 
universal cause, with the Absolute Emanation, which 
is not active and not passive, which has no reaction and 
no resistance to action, as it is absolute and eternal, 
and which by the one Emanation emanates all atoms 
in one certain mass, but if we should assume that the 
atoms are different in mass, we must also assume that 
they must have a changeable action to their peculiar 
masses, and then, as a natural necessity, they must be 
always changing. Indivisible particles, each of them 
having a consta7it-^€\^\t peculiar to itself, are, there- 
fore, positively a natural impossibility. 

And finally, there is a positive fact, after many 
experiments, made by Dulong, Barzelius, Dumas and 
many others, that water contains by weight 8 parts 
oxygen to i part hydrogen, by which it is to be under- 
stood plainly that the atomic weight of oxygen com- 
pared with that of hydrogen is 8 to 7, and there is no 
evidence at all for their assumption that the atomic 
weight of oxygen compared with hydrogen is 16 to i, 
but only their previous assumption that a molecule of 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 259 

water contains i volume oxygen to 2 volumes hydro- 
gen, which has also no special evidence but only that 
of the atomic hypothesis of Dalton, which is in 
itself absolutely false, the assumption which is based 
only upon Dalton's hypothesis has at present, conse- 
quently, no evidence at all, and consequently their 
atomic weight has also the same luck. 

The truth, however, is simple and clear, as I have 
demonstrated and clearly explained before : All the 
compound objects of the whole physical world are 
made up of atoms, the smallest conceivable iiidivisible 
particles of matter of an absolute equality \ they all are 
absolutely equal in mass, weight, volume, quantity 
and quality, all of which are equally endowed with 
their natural double motion, as a resultant of their cen- 
tral force producing motion in all directions. Those 
atoms, through the physical changes in space^ become 
combined into chemical molecules in time. Those 
molecules, again, producing new physical changes in 
space^ produce new chemical molecules in time^ possess- 
ing different quantities and qualities, and so on, as has 
been demonstrated before. Oxygen and hydrogen are 
not elementary bodies but compound molecules of 
simpler forms of matter. The hydrogen molecule, 
being prior in time, possesses a larger porosity, while 
oxygen, being later in time, possesses a smaller 
porosity, and comparing the mass of a volume oxygen 



26o THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

with the mass of such a volume hydrogen the ratio will 
be nearly 8 to i. When such a volume of oxygen and 
such a volume of hydrogen are combined they form 
water, possessing the mass of the two. The volumes 
of hydrogen-gas and oxygen-gas in the . chemical 
laboratory, however, cannot be measured by the 
volumes of the molecules in their isolated states. The 
volume of one oxygen molecule can be larger than 
another volume of an oxygen molecule, on account of 
the different amount of the outward physical changes 
in the grouping of the atoms in such a proximity to 
form a molecule oxygen, and such is the case with all 
other molecules. The chemical combination has 
nothing to do with the volumes of the molecules but 
with their mass^ which is called by our scientists — 
"weight." The chemical combination takes place 
by the juxtaposition of the atoms, as Dalton said, or, 
as the chemists determined it, as a direct substitution 
or as a replacement of the molecules entering into 
combination one molecule in the place of the other ; 
but not according to their views, that no " element " 
ceases to be what it is in any combination, as their 
"elements" cannot be split into two. The truth, 
however, is that we have no elements at all^ and that 
all the molecular bodies must be split into their singu- 
lar atoms by all their combinations, losing their 
identities and ceasing to be what they are. When 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 261 

the molecules of oxygen and hydrogen are combined, 
forming water, they cease to be oxygen and hydrogen 
in actuality. The smallest conceivable particle, the 
atom of water, is nothing else but water ; it has no 
trace of oxygen and hydrogen in actuality as long as 
it exists as water in actuality. But all the individual 
objects of actuality of the whole physical world are 
contained in the latent potency of the Universal 
Essence by the general force of Centrality, which 
never ceases to be what it is. The water existing 
before us in actuality has existed before in a latent 
potency in the molecules of hydrogen and oxygen, 
and it contains them in a latent potency at present 
in its actual existence. When the water, however, 
becomes decomposed, when it ceases to be water in 
actuality, it returns into its previous state, to be the 
previous molecules of hydrogen and oxygen in actu- 
ality and water in potentiality, and such is the case 
with all objects in their process of evolution in the 
endless universe.* The outward physical changes, 

* We now understand the difference between water and 
other fluids. Water, as a mineral fluid, expands on freezing, 
floating on the surface of the fluid, because the water-atoms, 
being on the first step of evolution and their atomic motion is not 
yet very closely joined together, are more capable of separating 
from each other into more space ; aud, therefore, while the empty 
spaces between the water-molecules are diminished by freezing 
on account of the reaction or the resistance of the outside physical 
changes to the molecular motion of the water, the empty spaces 
between the water-atoms are increased on account of the molecu- 



262 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES ' 

which are the superfluous motion of Centrality, pro- 
duce the decomposition of the objects, while the 
inward influence of Centrality, which is the inertia 
in matter^ composes them again into a new chemical 
combination into actuality containing the previous 
combination in potency. 

The whole above arguments and explanations, I 
think, are enough for every honorable and logical 
thinker to understand the nature of things in general 
and in their particularizations, and that the many 
hypotheses of our scientists and the conception of 
" inertia," according to Newton's first law, are 
untenable. 

The second Newton's law of motion, that Change 
of motion is proportional to force^ is positively true — ■ 
not accordingvto his views on the nature of things 
and forces, but according to the whole of the fore- 
going demonstrations. 

His third law, that To every actio?i there is 
always an eqttal and contrary reaction^ is also true — 
not according to his expression, as there is no direct 

lar motion jumping back to the centre; and, therefore, before the 
water becomes frozen, the atoms become more separated one from 
the other. But such is not the case with all other fluids on the 
second or the third step of evolution — as that of plants and ani- 
mals — because their atomic motion is already more closely joined 
together, and during the time of the freezing of their molecules 
the atoms are not able to be diffused into more space ; the whole 
fluid, therefore, must be entirely contracted when it is frozen. 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 263 

reaction in nature, but action and resistance to action^ 
as I have fully demonstrated before. 

By the whole of the above arguments, I may 
have the right to establish again two general laws of 
nature : 

First.— There is not a perfect compression by the 
chemical combinations of the atoms and molecules 
into objects in the universe ; that there are not two 
atoms or two molecules in the universe which are 
perfectly condensed together and compressed one with 
the other without empty spaces between them ; but 
all compound objects are composed of molecules and 
the molecules of atoms by empty spaces between the 
molecules and the atoms. This law is fully explained 
above. 

Second. — There are not two individual objects 
in the universe that are different in their properties 
and do not differ in their porosities. The objects 
having equal porosities possess exactly the same 
properties, and a variation in the porosity of an object 
produces a corresponding variation in its properties. 
This law may be proved as follows : 

The different properties or qualities of all the 
compound objects are the different chemical combina- 
tions of the atoms into molecules and molecules into 
bodies, and the different chemical combinations are 



264 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the different degrees of heat, whicli are the different 
rapidities and directions of the motion of the atoms 
and molecules, thus causing difierent porosities in all 
compounds. The porosities of the compounds, the 
empty spaces between the atoms and molecules, are 
the Universal Essence of its latent state before its 
transformation, while the matter of the atoms and 
molecules of the compounds is the Essence in its 
actuality after its transformation, so that the empty 
spaces in the compounds are not exactly one and the 
same with the matter of the atoms and molecules of 
the compounds. The heat or the motion of the atoms 
and molecules is an actuated force (passive) by the 
force of Centrality acting on the matter of the atoms 
and molecules, producing motion in the matter of the 
atoms and molecules, not in the empty spaces between. 
The empty spaces, which are the vibrated Essence 
before its transformation, are always affected by the 
different magnitudes of the motion, but they are not 
exactly the same as the matter of the objects upon 
which the force of Centrality acts after its transforma- 
tion, directly producing motion. The empty spaces, 
therefore, serve as a resistance to the action of the 
force of Centrality producing a resistance to the 
motion. And, therefore, a different porosity is a dif- 
ferent resistance to the motion, through which the 
motion becomes modified and transformed in all the 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 265 

different kinds of motion, and the different kinds of 
motion are the different chemical combinations pro- 
ducing different properties or qualities in the objects, 
and, consequently, a variation in the porosity of an 
object produces a corresponding variation in its pro- 
perties, as a general absolute law of nature. All the 
different forces in matter, accordingly — as the force 
of electricity, magnetism, heat, light, and all the 
forces in minerals, plants, animals and men — are due 
to the different porosities in the bodies. 

The heat in a body is nothing else but the motion 
in it; it increases as the motion is increased; the dif- 
ferent degree of heat in a body or the temperature is 
the different magnitude of motion which is always 
according to the different porosity of the body. And 
as the different porosities of the molecules are gen- 
erated one after the other in time by the influence of 
one upon the other, there is, therefore, a very intimate 
connection between the relation of bodies to heat and 
their chemical nature, as it is the result of the experi- 
ments made by Dulong and Petit on the " specific 
heat of the elementary bodies," which is, in reality, 
the specific motion of the molecules. The higher 
degree or the larger temperature of a body is but the 
increased velocity of the motion of the body, over- 
powering the peculiar motion of the atoms and mole- 
cules of their chemical combination; its action consists 



266 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

in separating or decomposing the parts of the com- 
pound objects. These separated parts moving with the 
greatest velocity cause an undulatory motion of the 
surrounding atoms which filled the universe, hence 
the sensation of light. 

Magnetism is a simple kind of motion in a com- 
pound object possessing thin and parallel elongated 
pores. The scientific experiments, made by Joule, 
de la Rive and Gray, have also shown that a bar of 
iron lengthened when it was temporarily magnetized 
in the longitudinal direction. When the magnetizing 
force was removed the bar shortened, but in general 
not quite to its original length. The general charac- 
ter of the phenomena is the same in soft or hard iron 
or steel. So that magnetism can only be manifested 
in bodies possessing this peculiar property, namely, 
the elongation of the pores in parallel directions. The 
influence of Centrality in such a body works without 
any obstacle, as its pores are not curvilineal just as the 
pores in other bodies; and, therefore, it is the strongest 
motion of the influence of Centrality at the two ends, 
producing a greater influence on the surrounding 
bodies to lose their peculiarities proportionally to such 
a greater influence, and the motion of the magnetic 
body is totally wanting in the middle where the spir- 
itual force is resting in the centre. The magnetism 
is not due to the two hypothetical " magnetic fluids," 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 267 

according to the views of Coulomb and Poisson, it is also 
not due to Maxwell's "molecularvortex theory," as there 
are no special fluids or imported molecules by "another 
Creator" in the Universe besides our natural fluids and 
molecules oione common nature. Magnetism is nothing 
else but the simplest motion of Centrality in the body 
which possesses elongated porosity, and, therefore, a 
very high temperature destroys this phenomenon as the 
heat destroys the previous proximity of the atoms and 
molecules in the body, so that the elongated porosity 
of the magnetic body ceases to play a magnetic role. 
And finally, since both the ends of the magnetic 
body possess greater influence of motion than all the 
other bodies upon our globe, they are, therefore, not 
affected and not influenced by the surrounding bodies, 
but directly by the earth itself, which is an oval-formed 
globe, having two poles, one of which is thicker than 
the other, as a resultant of her two opposite forces: 
Centrality and motion, her influence therefore causes 
directly the magnetic body to possess her peculiarities. 
Electricity. The Centrality and motion working 
differently in different parts of a body produce a result- 
ant force which is called electricity. This differentia- 
tion of the work of the primitive two forces is due to 
the different state of porosity of the body, i, e, , if we 
warm one portion of a body we cause a dilation of the 
pores at this portion, thereby hindering the influence 



268 



THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 



of the force of Centrality and consequently increasing 
the motion. In the non-heated portion the influence 
of Centrality works, therefore, differently than in the 
heated portion, and thus we produce two kinds of 
motion of the atoms in the same body, and by the 
overpowering of one kind of motion by the other in 
the same body we perceive with our senses the phenom- 
enon of electricity. 

Electricity is not due to the hypothesis of Mr. 
Franklin, who supposed that there exists a peculiar, 
subtile, imponderable fluid, which acts by repulsion 
on its own particles, and pervades all matter. This 
fluid is present in every substance in a quantity pecu- 
liar to it, and when it contains this quantity it is in 
the natural state, or in a state of equilibrium. By 
friction certain bodies acquire an additional quantity 
of the fluid and are said to h^ positively electrified; 
others by friction lose a portion and are said to be 
negatively electrified. It is also not due to the greater 
nonsense of Symmer, that there are two such fluids in 
the universe, one the positive and the other the nega- 
tive. For an imponderable fluid which has its own 
particles exists not in the physical universe beyond 
the atoms, as I have explained before.* The nature 

*One of the latest scientists, Prof. John Tyndall, althous>:h 
he has already recognized that heat is a mode of motioti, in his 
great book, still tried to accept one of those two hypotheses in 
his " Lessons in Electircity," not going one step farther and say- 
ing, as heat is a mode of motion why should not electricitv be the 
same ? ^ 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 269 

of electricity agaiu is not as defined by the physicists 
Ganot and his translator Prof. Atkinson, expressed 
in their book of physics as follows: 

" Unlike gravity, it is not inherent in the bodies, but it is 
evoked in them by a variety of causes, among which are friction, 
pressure, chemical action, heat and magnetism." 

According to their views, gravity is inherent in 
bodies while electricity is evoked by external causes. 
The tenant makes the landlord 7?iove from his own 
house ! It is true, friction brings electricity because it 
brings a greater velocity of motion in one portion of 
the body, pressure brings also a greater velocity in 
the motion of 07te portion of the body, the same is 
with the other causes; yet Electricity, which is a kind 
of motion, is inherent in the body, while " gravity " 
does not exist at all. And when you put the electri- 
fied body in hot water or in the fire, in order that the 
body should be heated at all its sides alike^ the elec- 
tricity of that body would be lost at once. Metals 
are not capable of receiving the electric excitement, 
because they are good conductors of heat ; when a 
portion of a metallic body is heated the heat is spread 
over its entire body. Electricity tends constantly to 
pass to the surface of bodies ; because the electricity 
is the excitement of the motion, it must lodge at the 
circumference of the electrified body, where, as I have 
shown, the greatest power of motion must be. When 



27© THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the positive and negative electricity came together it 
was converted into naught, because the Centrality 
and motion in the body came to their previous regular 
state. 

The identity between light and electro-dynamic 
waves and the electro-magnetic light theory of the 
latest scientists according to which the light effects 
depend on electrical vibration, are not due to their 
hypothetical fluid called the " ether," which has no 
existence in the universe, but to the vibration of the 
atoms themselves, under the force of Centrality by 
the stimulation of the Essence, which is not an 
imponderable fluid composed of particles or of 
another kind of atoms, but is an Absolute, Spiritual 
and Universal Essence ; it is an eternal being radiated 
from Absolute Intellectuality, becoming a Medium 
between Intellect and Matter. 

Let me continue my Universal Mechanism : 
When the universe was full of the different mole- 
cules having the double motion, they met one 
another and combined themselves in a massive body 
of loose texture — a nebula^ by one centre in the middle, 
being also an oval figure from which we have our 
large massive body which we call the SUN. The 
diameter of this great nebula was then 1242 million 
German miles long at least, equal to the diameter of 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 27 I 

the ellipse which Neptune describes around the Sun. 
The influence of Centrality, imparting itself to all the 
parts of this body, produced an immense motion of its 
compound parts, thus causing the motion around its 
axis and in an ellipse. The motion, having been 
modified and differentiated by the differences in poro- 
sity of the components of this vast body, appeared in 
different forces as in heat, light, magnetism, electric- 
ity, etc., in all its burning glory. The motion of the 
circumference of the nebula was so great by the cen- 
trifugal force, that the superficial parts have detached 
themselves, and fled far away from its body; the great 
motion ol the nebula has influenced those parts to lose 
their peculiarities, and caused them to move towards 
the nebula again, with a still greater rapidity, to sink 
down deep in the nebula, and in this way the con- 
sistency of the nebula became more and more compact. 
Thus in thousands upon thousands of years the nebula, 
as well as its pores, got smaller and smaller, and more 
compact, and this is the body which we call SUN. 

Those parts which were detached from the outside 
ring of the Sun and fled far away from its body, have 
not had the power to form small nebulae, as planets 
for themselves, as Kant and Laplace have dreamed. 
For the solar nebula at this time contained more 
matter according to their views than it does now; for 
all the other planets, according to their views, were 



272 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

still incorporated in it. Besides this, its force of 
attraction (according to their views upon which their 
theory is based) was the strongest and the distance 
between the sun and the new planets was the smallest. 
Its gravitation at that time must have been so great 
that it should have attracted the new planets as our 
earth would attract a big stone thrown from it. The 
theory of Kant and Laplace that all the planets of our 
solar system came into existence from those parts 
which are thrown off from the sun is, therefore, abso- 
lutely false. It is a patent fact, that, according to 
their theory, there is a force of gravity in matter, as 
well as, according to my theory, that there is not a force 
of gravity, but that of influence — every part which is 
thrown off from any heavenly body must be returned 
with a greater rapidity to that body from which it 
was thrown off. The truth, however, is tbat all the 
planets came into existence through the following 
cause : 

As the solar nebula becomes more and more con- 
densed, through its own parts, which are constantly 
thrown off from its outside ring, by the force of cen- 
trifugal, and which must be returned with a greater 
velocity to merge deeply in the body of the sun, it 
causes empty spaces in the Universal Essence, which 
the nebula has occupied before. The Essence at that 
space again individualized itself into atoms; these 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 273 

combined into molecules and small bodies, moving- 
with the usual double motion. In this way, when the 
solar nebula was condensed more, so that its diameter 
was reduced to about 800 million German miles, there 
appeared in those empty spaces, many and many small 
nebula which were combined from the new atoms and 
molecules in those empty spaces from the Kssence 
itself. The nearest of the small nebulae to the sun, 
being influenced by its rapid velocity, in the first 
distance from the Sun, moved toward it, falling on the 
body of the sun, as we see by the very small planets 
or the falling star, the meteors upon the earth when 
they came in the first distance of it (the first distance 
of the earth is 860 German miles, in which all the 
surrounding, bodies being influenced by its velocity, 
they lose their peculiar double motion; and this is the 
law of falling bodies); the remotest small nebulae from 
the sun, being influenced by the rapid motion of the 
sun only in the second distance or in the third from 
it, had their own double motion but acquired a 
greater velocity on account of the influence of the 
sun in that distance, and came in contact with one 
another and found one large planet, which we call 
Neptune, which again moved in usual double motion 
around its axis and ellipse. Later on the solar nebula 
was still more condensed, so that its diameter was 
reduced to about 400 million miles — another empty 



2/4 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

Space, more individualization of the Essence, 2i new 
formation of molecules and bodies, which attained a 
great velocity of motion through the influence of the 
sun, and striking one another, brought into existence 
another planet— Uranus. In the course of time the 
Sun was condensed to a diameter of about 225 million 
miles— another empty space — another new formation 
of molecules and bodies, and another planet came into 
existence — Saturn. Later on the Sun shrank down 
to a diameter of 125 million miles, whereby empty 
spaces in the Essence were produced, new atoms^ new 
molecules and bodies came into existence, and th^ 
greatest planet was created, Jupiter. Then again the 
nebula was condensed to a diameter of 64 million 
miles, new empty spaces, 7tew atoms^ new molecules 
and bodies have produced the small planets, called 
Astroids. These Astroids came not together to form 
one planet as all the previous planets were created, 
for, at the same time the Astroids are influenced by 
the Sun to move in its velocity and direction accord- 
ing to the distance from the Sun they are also influ- 
enced by a great power of the greatest planet,Jupiter, to 
move in its direction also; thereby they are prevented 
from being combined in one planet. When the solar 
nebula was condensed to a diameter of 43 million miles, 
new empty spaces, new atoms^ molecules and bodies,and 
a new planet is produced- — Mars. The nebula shrank 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 275 

down again to a diameter of 32 million miles, and 
produces new empty spaces again, new atoms^ new 
molecules and bodies, and the planet we live on was 
created— i?;^<? earth. Still later the Sun was reduced 
to a diameter of 27 million miles, the planet Venus 
was created. Finally, after the last shrinking of 
the Sun to the diameter of its present state, the 
youngest planet, Mercury, came into existence. 

In the same way the creation of all the rest of the 
planets, moons and comets of our solar system took 
place, and this is the case with all celestial bodies 
in the endless universe. The primitive matter for all 
bodies that ever can be in an actual existence in an un- 
limited universal space is nothing else but a spiritual 
Essence, which is Absolute and eternal, it is unlimited 
by time and place, has no beginning and no end; 
for it is the absoluteness of Absolute Intellectuality. 
Its realization is the intellectual Inferences revealed 
one from the other and one after the other in actuality 
as they are known one in the other in the Intellectual 
Laws of Absolute Intellectuality. So that each real- 
ized thing has its eternal existence in the contents of 
the Intellectual Being, in which every one of the 
particularized objects is known and ^defined before- 
hand one in the other, in a Predestined Harmony (as 
Leibnitz has conceived something of it) in the infinite 
inferences of the one Absolute Intellectuality in all 



276 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

eternity. But when it is realized, when the general 
force of transformation, the force of Centrality, brings 
forth all the infinite inferences through the Intellec- 
tual Waves of their infinite infinities, in a Spiritual 
Essence, to be revealed in actuality, according to the 
lyaws. Rules and Orders, which are the Inferences of 
Intellectuality itself, one from the other and one after 
the other, in the order of creation, each of them, then» 
only then, has its time and place; it has a time and a 
place when and where it exists in actuality, but it has 
no time and no place in its eternal existence. The 
existence of every thing in actuality is nothing else 
but the revelation of the Essence, issuing forth one 
from the other and one after the other, occupying 
a certain place in a certain time, through the general 
force of Centrality, by temporary causes issuing forth 
also one from the other and one after the other in the 
eternal bond of causation. 

The same applies to our solar system as well; 
there was a time and a place when and where the sun 
with its planets did not exist and there will be a time 
and place when and where the sun will be shrunk 
more and more to occupy a smaller diameter in space, 
and another planet will appear, and when the planet 
Neptune will be far away from the sun, that it will 
not be any more influenced by the sun, to move in the 
direction of the sun, but by its peculiar double motion, 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 277 

and the above mentioned new planet, to be formed 
between Mercury and the sun, will have its own 
peculiarities according to its distance from the sun; 
and there will be a time when the whole solar system 
will disappear, be returned to the Essence again, and 
be transformed into something else. The same is true 
of all the innumerable bodies that fill the universe. 
Each moment some new worlds come into existence 
and others vanish, change into other beings and 
worlds, and such is the play of creation from eternity 
to eternity. 

The great Architect, constructing the universe as 
well as our solar system, has not used the " Centripetal 
force" or the force of "Gravitation," nor any other 
" forces " which our scientists have invented, but the 
Emanation of His Intellectual Light itself is the 
general force of transformation, the force of Centrality^ 
which, bringing forth all mental images from their 
idealistic state into the potential state, brings forth 
with it the qualification of the individualization of 
every one, to be individualized in actual existence, by 
the impulse of Centrality, producing thereby the 
double motion of every object by its being an object. 
Each object has the motion around its axis according 
to its ntass^ and the elliptical motion to move from one 
place in the other in an ellipse, according to its vol- 
ume. The sun, being greater in mass and in volume 



IsyS THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

tlian all the planets taken together, has the greatest 
■rapidity of the motion around its axis according to its 
mass, and makes the greatest ellipse in the universal 
space in its elliptical motion according to its volume. 
Jupiter, the greatest of the planets, has the greatest 
force of its peculiar double motion in comparison with 
the other planets ; Mercury, the smallest of the planets, 
has by its peculiarity the least force of that double 
motion. But the sun, revolving itself with its great 
rapidity in the universal space, which is the universal 
Essence in its potential state, containing all objects, 
.all their causes, effects, and all their modifications in 
:its latent potency, excites and awakes the Essence to 
be revealed in such a rapid motion as that of the sun 
itself. The whole universal space around the sun is, 
therefore, influenced by the rapid motion of the sun; 
all atoms, molecules and bodies that may be found in 
that space are influenced by the rapidity and direction 
of the sun, losing through it their own peculiarities. 
That influence, however — since it is the product of 
the influence of the force of Centrality in the centre 
of the sun, which divides itself equally to all sides, 
from the centre to the circumference — diminishes, 
therefore, according to the square of the distance of 
the universal space from the sun, and the distance in 
this case is measured by the length of the radius of 
the sun, which is the distance from the centre to the 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 279 

circumference, about ninety-six thousand German 
miles. So that the unit or the normal influence of 
the sun is in the first distance, four times weaker in 
the second distance, 192 thousand miles from the sun, 
nine times weaker in the third distance, and so forth. 
All the objects that may be found in the first distance 
from the sun lose their peculiarities totally, and fall- 
ing upon the circumference of the sun they become 
parts of it, to move together in its peculiarity — as is 
the case with the falling bodies upon our planet, the 
earth, in the Jirst distance, 860 German miles over its 
circumference. The objects that may be found in 
the second distance from the sun, however, retain 
their own peculiarities inversely proportional to the 
diminishment of the influence of the sun in that dis- 
tance, viz., four times more of their peculiarities ; so 
that they retain their double motion by themselves, 
but influenced by the rapidity and direction of the 
sun to move with great rapidity proportional to the 
influence of the sun in that distance in an elliptical 
way around the sun — ^just as is the case with the fall- 
ing stars upon the earth. Those falling stars, meteors 
as they are called, are new small planets, coming 
always into existence by the new empty spaces which 
are found always in the Universal Essence, which 
give birth to new atoms, new molecules, new bodies 
and new planets in the whole endless universal space. 



28o THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

When they are found in the second distance of the 
earth or over any other large body, over the moon, 
planets, sun and stars, they move themselves fluttering 
in the elliptical way of the large body, but when they 
come to the beginning of the first distance they lose 
their peculiarities altogether and, falling upon the 
earth, they become parts of it, through which the 
earth becomes more compact and larger in mass, and 
such is the case with all other celestial bodies. The 
objects that are found in the third distance from the 
sun possess nine times more of their peculiaritieSj 
inversely proportional to the diminution of the influ- 
ence of the sun in that distance, through which the 
double motion of those objects are combined to move 
in the direction of the sun, and so forth. The planet 
Mercury, accordingly — although it is the smallest of 
all planets— being the nearest to the sun, the influence 
of the latter, moving from west to east, is so great 
upon its surrounding area, that it causes the planet 
to move with the quickest speed, namely, 6.9 Ger- 
man miles a second ; the next planet Venus, being 
less influenced by the sun, moves only the speed of 
4.9 miles; the earth, which is still further from the 
sun, moves only 4.7 miles, and Jupiter, being still 
further from the sun, only 1.7 miles a second, and so 
is the case with all the planets. Thus the work of 
the planetary system is not due to the "gravitation" 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 281 

but to the motion and its influence. Without the sun, 
however, the planets would move more slowly, and 
according to their respective masses and volumes. 

Should we assume that the planetary motion is 
due to the theory of Sir Isaac Newton, that we have two 
side forces acting under a certain angle on the planets 
one of which is the Centripetal force, or the attrac- 
tive power of the sun, and the second the centrifugal or 
tangental force of the planets, through which the 
resultant force must be equal to the diagonal of the 
parallelogram, having the same angle of inclination 
as the working forces, and the sides proportional to the 
forces, and all the planets move therefore in ellipses, 
while the sun is fixed in the focus of the ellipses of 
all the planets— as I have explained his views before — 
we have no reason, then, and no explanation as to the 
cause of the varying lapidity of the motion of the 
planets. We find that the nearer the planets are to 
the sun the stronger is their force of motion (their 
tangental force). This fact cannot be explained by 
Newton's Laws, for according to his laws we have to 
find the case to be reversed. It is clearly understood 
that every force which is active in matter continues 
its activity, opposing, according to its strength, all the 
lesser forces that may work against its action. Now, 
if there was a force of gravitation in the sun, that force 
would attract to him the bodies that are around him, 



282 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

and according to its strength prevail over the lesser 
forces, the forces of motion which lie in the planets 
and which oppose the gravitation of the sun. Accord- 
ing to this, Mercury, being nearer to the sun than all 
the other planets, must be subjected to his gravitation 
more than they all are, and should therefore have a 
force of motion (his tangental force) less than theirs; 
the sun's gravitaUon must in his case be so strong 
as to reduce his motion more than it reduces the 
motion of the other planets. The motion of Venus, 
again, should be stronger than that of Mercury and 
weaker than that of the earth. Continuing in this 
wise we should have the forces of motion of all the 
planets increasing in proportion to their distance from 
the sun. But since we find the case to be reversed, 
we must conclude that there is no force of gravitation 
in the sun. 

In addition to this we must take into considera- 
tion the following circumstance: The reason why the 
planets move in the perihelion faster than in the 
aphelion, according to the second law of Kepler, is, 
according to Newton, because they are the nearer to 
the sun, as I have cited his view above. This explana- 
tion contradicts itself; because the force of gravitation 
takes the upper hand over the tangental force, the 
latter increases ? 

lyet us assume for argument's sake that — accord- 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 285 

ing- to the second law of Kepler, "the line drawn 
from the sun to a planet, or the radius-vector of the 
planet, sweeps over equal areas in equal times " — the 
motion of the planets must be stronger when they 
come nearer to the sun, according to Newton's cause,, 
in order that the gravitation of the sun should not 
attract the planets when they are nearer to him. Ifwe 
divide the ellipse which a planet aphelion. 
makes by its elliptical motion in six A 

triangles, as we see in this figure^ we 
find that the areas of those triangles 
are perfectly equal although they g 
vary in form. The arc BC is longer " 
than the arc AB which stretches from 
theaphelion A to the point B, although 
the triangles ASB and BSC are equal perihelion. 
in their areas. The planet moving in that ellipse- 
must therefore go at a greater speed from B to C than- 
it went from A to B. The third arc, stretching from. 
C to the perihelion D, is still longer and must be run, 
by the planet still faster, in order to cover equal areas 
in equal times. So that, according to Newton's 
explanation, the motion of the planets is stronger when, 
they arc nearer to the perihelion, which is nearer to the- 
sun, to cover equal areas in equal times, because the 
gravitation of the sun is stronger on the planets 
when they are nearer to the perihelion, their tan- 




284 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

gental motion must be, therefore, also greater, not to 
be more aflfected by the sun. We must, however, con- 
sider that Kepler has discovered the law by facts, not 
by causes. The fact is that the planets cover equal 
areas in equal times. But not because they possess a 
voluntary motion, to be careful to run faster when 
they are nearer to the sun, but the planets are impelled 
hy the force which is inherent in them or by the one 
which acts upon them from the outside, each accord- 
ing to its peculiar nature. That force, again, cannot 
be changed by the nature of its own impulse. If it 
be in the nature of the planet to move at the rate of 
five miles in a second it must go on at that rate regard- 
less of its position in the ellipse, whether it be in the 
perihelion or in the aphelion. As a positive fact, the 
cause of their variation cannot be in the constitution 
of the planets or in the nature of their motion — 
recourse is taken to Newton's theory and the cause 
is ascribed to the gravitation of the sun. But 
this again is erroneous. The force of gravitation of 
the sun, which is to attract the planets in a straight 
line unto the sun, cannot be at the same time the 
impulse to increase the tangental force of the planets 
to move far away from the sun with greater rapidity. 
The force of gravitation, instead of prevailing over the 
force of the tangental motion and causing the sun to 
attract the planets to him, causes the latter to run in 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 285 

an elliptical line and always to pass by the sun when 
they come near to him; thus we find two opposing 
actions produced by one impulse of one force, which 
is a natural impossibility. 

Honor is due to John Kepler who has discovered 
the three laws of planetary motion, as he made no 
attempt to explain them on false theories, although 
the hypothetical force of gravitation was known to 
him through many philosophers and scientists who 
preceded him. But Newton came and based all 
physical and astronomical phenomena on that false 
theory. Natural scientists — without searching for its 
cause or value in Nature in general, without inquiring 
by what cause gravitation was brought into compound 
objects and what impels its action, or whether gravi- 
tation was indeed one of the principal and dynamic 
forces, as Sir Isaac Newton and his followers claim, 
and whether it reveals to us the mystery of nature 
and affords an answer to every question that suggests 
itself about the creation of the universe and nature — 
those scientists came with their mathematics and built 
upon the theory of gravitation great structures, signs 
and landmarks all along the road of natural philoso- 
phy and astronomy. 

The mathematical inferences, through which all 
objects, their causes, forces, effects, changes and all 
their phenomena are produced, have their origin in 



286 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

the absolute knowledge of the general existence of 
the universe entire, in the mathematical or logical 
bond in the absolute Intellectuality. If we conceive 
the pure knowledge of the general existence, through 
which we are able to understand the causes and effects 
of the natural phenomena, then, and only then, does 
the science of mathematics serve man to make for him- 
self signs on the road of knowledge in the realm of 
nature: can he by mathematical calculations trace 
his way to the recognition of the very nature of that 
phenomena. But if that correct knowledge is missing, 
if the axioms upon which the mathematics are based 
do not contain the truth in themselves, mathematics 
cannot help him to find out the nature of a pheno- 
menon, its causes and effects. Nor does the knowl- 
edge which we derive from the observation of single 
phenomena suffice to impart exact information of the 
nature, causes and effects of things in general. The 
nature of single objects is not absolute; for single 
phenomena come into existence through causes and 
effects which have their origin in the general order of 
things, and those causes and effects change and vary 
in every individual object through the causes and 
effects which the aggregate of all objects, which nature 
as a whole, produces. All experiments of single 
phenomena exhibit only individual and isolated forces 
that exist in matter under certain conditions and at 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 



287 



certain times, of which mechanics and investi- 
gators may make use for themselves in their indivi- 
dual mechanism or investigations; but they do not 
evidence any universal cause or natural law. The 
axioms and laws which are based only upon experi- 
ments of single phenomena, as long as they are not 
proved by the knowledge of the universal causes in 
general, are only delusive to the senses, and an impli- 
cit belief in their universal significance bars for us 
the road to knowledge and Wisdom Supreme. 

I,et us consider the axiom of Sir Isaac Newton, 
upon which the science of the mathematics of our 
scientists is based. His axiom or law is this: "Every 
particle of matter in the universe attracts every other 
particle with a force varying directly as the masses, 
and inversely as the square of the distance." This 
axiom or law, however, not only does not contain the 
truth in itself, but it contains its contradiction in 
itself. By the expression : "Every particle of matter," 
we have to understand that every particle of matter, 
as a particle^ must be a particle for itself; every par- 
ticle of matter, as a particle, must have in itself some 
force, some power, to be this particle, separated from 
any other particle; as a patent fact, the force of every 
particle is to keep the particle in its particular state; 
the force or the power of every parti cle,being occupied 
by its own impulse to keep the particle in a particular 



288 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

state, can positively not be the force to attract another 
particle to itself. A particle of matter which attracts 
any other particle by its own nature, is positively a 
natural impossibility. The whole objective world, as 
it is before us, consists of particularized objects, each 
one in its individual state, positively not because the 
universal existence is an attractive power, but because 
the universal existence in the physical world is a 
power of individualization, each object to exist in its 
individual state and form. The combinations of many 
particles in one body must be forced naturally or arti- 
ficially by other outside forces, not inherent in these 
particles; but none of the particles desires to attract 
another particle to itself by its own nature. 

The elliptical motion of the moon around the 
earth, which is the first and the most simple proof of 
the law of gravitation, according to our scientists, is 
in reality a positive proof against the theory of gravi- 
tation. In the first place the proof of the scientists, 
which is demonstrated as follows, is no proof at all. 
Their proof is that: The force acting on the moon is 
equal to the force of terrestrial gravity, reduced as the 
inverse square of the distance of the moon and of a 
point on the earth's surface from the centre of the 
earth. The fall of a body near to the earth's surface 
is about 16.1 feet, or nearly 193 inches per second 
(by English measure). This velocity diminishes 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 289 

according to the square of the distance. The moon 
is, roughly, at a distance from the earth's centre equal 
to 60 radii of the earth, and therefore the earth's 
moving force is less on her than on a body at the 
earth's surface as i to 3600. It follows that the fall 
of the moon towards the earth in a second on account 
of the earth's attraction (according to their own views) 
amounts to rather less than ['g of an inch. The 
tangental motion of the moon, again, is according to 
their views — if at any moment the earth's attraction 
ceased to act — also ,9 of an inch. So that if for 
the next second the moon moved on a tangent to her 
present course,, her distance from the earth's centre at 
the end of that second would be rather more than 
, L, of an inch greater than at the beginning of the 
second. It is a positive proof by the scientists of the 
laws of gravitation, that the moon falls every second 
from her tangental line and is attracted to the earth 
in every second a distance of 4 of an inch; so that 
the moon is attracted towards the earth precisely as 
she would be if the force of gravity acting on bodies 
near her surface ruled her also, the law of variation 
of the force with distance being that of the inverse 
squares. 

It is true, if we would know clearly by a pure 
argument or by certain other proof that the earth 
possesses the force of gravity; and if we would know 



290 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

by a pure argument or certaiu other proof that the 
bodies that are found in the second distance or in the 
third distance over the earth's surface fall on the 
earth by a certain velocity, according to the square of 
that distance, so that a body which is found in the 
distance, of 60 radii of the earth falls r'g of an inch 
in the first second; and if we would know also clearly, 
by some special argument, that the moon has a tangen- 
tal force by herself, so that, if the earth should cease its 
action on the moon, she would move in a straight line 
in the universal space; then we would be able to 
believe in the proof of those scientists, and see the 
facts in actuality according to all arguments and 
proofs in intellectuality. 

But as we do not know of the tangental force of 
the moon by any special argument or proof besides 
the theory of gravitation, and as we do not know of 
the case of the falling bodies that are found over the 
first radii from the earth's surface by any other special 
argument or proof besides the theory of gravitation, 
we have no right to believe in the theory of gravita- 
tion only because we have made the assumption that 
the moon has a tangental force, moving in a straight 
line, if it were not afiected by the earth, and the 
assumption that a body which is found in the distance 
of 60 radii from the earth is attracted to it by a velo- 
city of 19 of an inch in the first second, in order that 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 29I 

those assumptions should be a proof of the theory of 
gravitation, while, in reality, both assumptions are 
positively nonsense; neither the moon nor any celes- 
tial body has a tangental force to move in a straight 
line in the universal space, and no particle of matter 
which is found over the first distance of the earth has 
any tendency to be attracted to the earth's surface. 

Secondly, the fact whereby the elliptical motion 
of the moon around the earth is explained in the 
theory of Sir Isaac Newton is a posi- 
tive proof against the whole theory: 
It is simply explained by elementary 
considerations, according to Newton, 
in a mechanical figure, thus: Let B 
represent the earth, and let M repre- 
sent the initial position of the moon. 
If the moon be simply released it will immediately 
begin to fall along the line ME on the earth. If, on the 
other hand, the moon were initially projected along the 
line MZ perpendicular to ME, the attraction of the 
earth at E will deflect the moon from the line MZ 
which it would otherwise have followed, and compel 
the moon to move in a curved line MX. In this way is 
said to be explained the elliptical motion of all the 
planets around the sun. It is evident that the moon or 
any planet was, according to this theory, originally 
projected with a certain specific velocity, regarding its 




292 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

distance, in a direction at right angles to the radii- 
vectors connecting the moon and the earth or the 
planet and the sun; then, the moon or the planet 
could continue forever to describe a circle around the 
earth or around the sun. For the particular form of 
the curve which the planet will describe depends upon 
the initial velocity. With a small initial velocity, the 
deflecting power of the sun will have a more speedy 
eflfect than is possible when the initial velocity is con- 
siderable. The rapidly curving path MX will there- 
fore correspond to a small initial velocity while the 
flatter curve MY may be the orbit when the initial 
velocity is considerable. So that each planet or each 
satellite, such as the moon around the earth, must be 
imagined to possess, accordingly, a certain specific 
initial velocity according to the distance from the 
body around which it is revolving and according to 
its power of gravity, in order that the two side-forces, 
the initial velocity which is the tangental force and 
the force of gravitation should be in an equal direction 
at right angles, through which the circular motion 
should be the resultant force. 

Now, if the laws of gravitation were true, if every 
body possesses an attractive power according to its 
mass, if the elliptical motion of the moon around the 
earth is due to the gravitation of the earth and the 
elliptical motion of the planets around the sun is due 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 293 

to the gravitation of the sun, it would be a natural 
impossibility that the moon should have an elliptical 
motion around the earth. Because at the same time 
that the initial velocity of the moon was deflected by 
the attraction of the earth to make a curved line, as a 
circular motion around the earth, it would be deflected 
by the great power of attraction of the sun to make 
the curved line, as a circular motion, only around the 
sun, not around the earth. The moon is at a distance 
from the earth's centre equal to 60 radii of the earth. 
The fall of a body near the earth's surface is about 
16. 1 feet, or nearly 193 inches per second. It 
follows that the account of the earth's attraction on 
the moon amounts to rather less than i '9 of an inch. 
From the sun's centre is the moon at a distance equal 
to 215 radii of the sun. The fall of a body near the 
sun's surface, according to their views, is about 451 
feet or 5,412 inches per second, nearly 28 times 
greater than that of the earth's attraction. It follows 
that the account of the sun's attraction on the moon 
amounts to rather more than }4 of an inch, or nearly 
2}4 times greater than that of the earth's attraction. 
Thus every second that the initial velocity of the 
moon is deflected by the gravitation of the earth it 
would be deflected 2>^ times stronger ; by the gravita- 
tion of the sun, and the moon would never make a 
circular motion around the earth. 



294 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

As a matter of fact, the moon's orbit at any 
moment is an ellipse, having the earth at one of the 
foci ; but this orbit is constantly changing in form 
and position, the eccentricity alternately increasing 
and decreasing between the limits 0.066 and 0.044, 
and the perihelion sometimes advancing and some- 
times retrograding, and so many more variations in 
the motion of the moon are always apparent. The 
explanation of our astronomers of the variations con- 
sists in this : Since the sun acts to diminish the 
earth's gravitation when the moon is in syzygies and 
to increase that gravitation when the moon is in 
quadratures, the motion of the moon is retarded in 
the former case and accelerated in the latter, and at 
the octants there is neither acceleration nor retarda- 
tion. The gravitation of the sun acts sometimes in 
drawing the moon from the earth when she is in 

conjunction with the sun, 
. ,]. '^ f. as we see in this figure— 

^^ tl ■«i«4j ^^^ sometimes in drawing 

the earth from the moon when she is in opposition, 

as we see in this figure, and so 
g on. The balance of eflfects dur- 

^7 ^ ~ fl ' 3 1 ^^^ ^ single lunation must cor- 



respond to a diminution of the 
earth's gravitation through the perturbing action of 
the sun on the moon's motion relatively to the earth. 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 295 

Such are the arguments and explanations of our 
astronomers, which are absolutely false. The prob- 
lem of three bodies teaching us the determinations of 
the perturbations in the motions of the planets and 
their satellites, which are due to the interference of 
other bodies — that in any problem where perturba- 
tions are involved, we have at least three bodies, viz. : 
the principal body S (the sun), a body, P, which circu- 
lates around S, and a disturbing body, P'. If we had 
only two bodies, S and P, to consider, then P would 
describe around S a conic section, of which S was the 
focus, and the radius-vector, SP, would sweep over 
equal areas in equal times. By the introduction of the 
third body, P', which attracts both the former bodies, 
S and P, the motion is deranged, the orbit which P 
describes is no longer a conic section, and its radius- 
vector has ceased to describe equal areas in equal 
times, teaches us plainly that the perturbing force is 
very small in comparison with the primary force by 
which the motion of the disturbed body is controlled. 
We, therefore, were enabled to say that the elliptical 
motion of the moon around the sun, if the case was 
so, through the great primary force of the sun, is dis- 
turbed by the smaller force of the earth; but it is 
ridiculous to say that the elliptical motion of the 
moon around the earth through the small force of the 
earth is disturbed by the great primary force of the 



2g6 THE UNIVERSAL MYSTERIES 

sun, as it is ridiculous to say that a body is drawn 2 
feet northwards, minus 4 per second, when the body 
is forced by two opposite forces, one of which enforces 
it to move southwards 4 feet per second and the other 
enforces it northwards 2 feet per second, while, in 
reality, in that case the body is drawn southwards by 
the greater force, 4 feet a second, minus 2, by the 
disturbance of the smaller force. If the planetary 
motion were due to the theory of gravitation, then, it 
were positively a natural impossibility that the moon 
should have a circular motion around the earth. 
Thus, as a positive fact, there is no force of gravita- 
tion at all. The whole astronomical knowledge of 
our scientists may be true only through the fact 
that we have a great deal of astronomical knowledge 
from the observations made at Babylon and by Ptol- 
emy, long before that nonsensical theory of gravita- 
tion. The discoveries of Copernicus and Kepler are 
also found through facts and mathematical cal- 
culations, not by the cause of gravitation. In 
the same way the discovery of the planet Nep- 
tune by Leverier and Adams is due to facts; the 
planets have their certain motion in the solar system, 
and they were also disturbed by other planets, and 
have therefore found, by the Problem of Three Bodies, 
that a planet must be found over the planet Uranus. 
But their discovery has absolutely nothing more to do 



UNIVERSAL MECHANISM 297 

with the cause of gravitation than with the cause of 
the influence of the Universal Essence, through which 
all astronomical and physical phenomena are clearly 
explained, as I have already proved by many argu- 
ments before. 



Perhaps I have sufficiently proved the existence of a 
general and Absolute Universal Essence — by all the argu- 
ments, demonstrations and explanations of the preceding 
four chapters— as a protoplast to all things that may be 
found in the physical world, and that the Essence itself is 
nothing else but the Absolute Emanation of the Absolute 
Intellectuality, who reveals Himself by His whole glory in 
universal existence through the Medium — this Universal 
Essence. Although my English may not prove to be cor- 
rect in regard to composition — for I am a foreigner, and 
feared to intrust the translation to other hands — never- 
theless it serves to convey the proper ideas of the whole 
theory to every logical thinker who seeks the truth only 
for the sake of truth itself, to conceive, by a general con- 
ception, the Universal Wisdom, And although there may 
be some apparent misunderstanding of the expressions of 
the philosophers and scientists whom I have controverted 
in this book — which needs nothing more than some improve- 
ments — still I am bold enough to say that the theory within 
itself sheds new light on all the mysteries of the endless 
universe to those who will set aside all partiality, prejudice 
and dependence upon their preconceived ideas or authori- 
ties who are generally recognized, and who will scrutinize 
the phenomena which are explained through the above 
theory. They will thus positively reach the highest stage 
of Universal Wisdom. 



NOTE BY THE PROOF-READER. 

The proofreader through whose hands the foregoing work has 
passed, feels impelled to ask the indulgence of the reader, and 
to bid him overlook what appear to be errors or inaccuracies in 
language. In a work of such depth, it was indeed dangerous to 
depart from the MS. submitted by the author, even where violence 
seemed to be done to the English language, lest some thought of 
the author be thereby twisted or escape. In fact, this happened 
in the early pages of the volume with the result intimated, so that 
it became necessary to undo his work, and the proofreader became 
the slave of his MS. The author, whose vernacular is Hebrew, 
found difficulty in writing his work in English ; and surely the 
printer could not clothe in accurate language the subtle thoughts of 
a writer who sets out to demolish Spinoza, Newton and others 
whose systems have an established place in the realms of science. 
It is the thought and not the diction that must convince the scholar 
who passes judgment upon the system elaborated by the author, 
and that has been preserved at the expense of elegance and ac- 
curacy of language. 



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